Tripod

How to spell tripod

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce tripod

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does tripod mean?

1. nounA three-legged stand used to support a camera, telescope, or similar equipment.

Tripod in a sentence

• She mounted the camera on a tripod to keep the long exposure sharp.

• The surveyor set the level on a tripod before reading the measurements.

Where does tripod come from?

Language of origin: Greek

The word comes from the Greek tripous, which literally meant 'three-footed', built from tri 'three' and pous (genitive podos) 'foot'. In ancient Greece a tripous was a three-legged stand or cauldron, often used at altars and famously as the seat from which the oracle at Delphi delivered prophecies. The term passed into Latin as tripus and reached English in the 1600s as a name for any three-legged stand or support. The same pous root for 'foot' survives in many English words, including 'podium', 'podiatry', and the 'pod' in 'octopus', and remembering that 'pod' means foot fixes the ending. Because all three legs share one stable point, the modern photographic tripod keeps the original sense of a steady three-footed base.

How the word is built

• tri- (three)
• pod (foot, from Greek pous, podos)