Triad

How to spell triad

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce triad

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does triad mean?

1. nounA group or set of three related people or things.
2. nounA chord of three notes sounded together, usually a root with a third and a fifth above it.
3. nounA secret Chinese criminal organisation involved in illegal activities.

Triad in a sentence

• The report grouped the findings into a triad of cost, speed, and quality.

• The piano teacher had her play a simple major triad in C.

• The documentary traced the rise of a triad that ran smuggling routes across the region.

• The founding triad of partners still runs the firm together.

• The song opens with a bright triad on the guitar.

• Police linked the warehouse robbery to a local triad.

Where does triad come from?

Language of origin: Greek

Triad arrives in English from the Late Latin trias, which was itself borrowed from the Greek trias, meaning 'a set of three' or 'the number three'. The Greek form was built on treis, meaning 'three', the same ancient root that gives English the everyday prefix tri- in words like triangle and tripod. The Greek ending -as (genitive -ados) marked a collective noun, a grouping, which is why the Latinised spelling carried the -ad into English in the 1500s. Early uses were often theological and musical, describing the Holy Trinity as a triad and naming a chord of three notes. The clear lesson for the speller is that the word is simply tri- (three) plus -ad, so there is only one vowel before the d and no doubled letters anywhere.

How the word is built

• tri- (three)
• -ad (group of, from Greek -as/-ados)