Trinity

How to spell trinity

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce trinity

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does trinity mean?

1. nounA group or set of three people or things considered as a unit.

Trinity in a sentence

• The report rested on a trinity of cost, quality and speed.

• Those three founders formed the creative trinity behind the studio.

Where does trinity come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word descends from the Latin trinitas, which meant 'threeness' or a group of three, formed from trinus 'threefold' and ultimately from tres, the plain Latin word for 'three'. Early Christian writers, especially the theologian Tertullian around the year 200, adopted trinitas to express the doctrine of one God in three persons, and that religious sense travelled with the word. English took it in during the 1200s through Old French trinite, and the spelling later settled back toward its Latin form with the double i. The same tres root that gives 'three' also lies behind 'triple', 'trio' and 'triangle', so the central -in- spelling is a useful reminder of its 'three' origin. Because the word is so closely tied to its Latin ancestor, the modern spelling stays close to trinitas, just dropping the Latin ending for the English -ity.

How the word is built

• trin- (threefold, from Latin trinus)
• -ity (noun-forming suffix denoting a state or quality)