Triple

How to spell triple

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce triple

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does triple mean?

1. adjectiveConsisting of three parts, or three times as great in amount or number.
2. verbTo make or become three times as much or as many.

Triple in a sentence

• adjective

  The hotel offered a triple room for the three colleagues.

• verb

  The company hopes to triple its profits within a decade.

• adjective

  She earned triple the salary in her new role.

• verb

  Careful investment can triple a modest savings balance over time.

Where does triple come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin triplus, meaning 'threefold', which was formed from tri- 'three' and the element -plus that signals multiplication, the same building block seen in duplus 'double' and quadruplus 'fourfold'. Latin triplus passed into Old French as triple, and English adopted it during the late 1300s with the straightforward sense of being three times as much or consisting of three parts. The -ple ending traces back to the Latin verb plicare, 'to fold', which also gives English words like 'pliable', 'apply', and 'complicate', so the original image is literally something folded three times over. Because the spelling preserves that French and Latin -ple rather than an English -el or -le-with-extra-letters, writers rarely stumble over it. The baseball sense, a hit reaching third base, is a later American extension that simply applies the 'three' idea to the third base.

How the word is built

• tri- (three)
• -ple (fold, from Latin plus/plicare: to multiply or fold)