third

English numbers ^(edit)

	30
←  2	3	4  →
Cardinal: three     Ordinal: third     Latinate ordinal: tertiary     Reverse order ordinal: third to last, third from last, last but two     Latinate reverse order ordinal: antepenultimate     Adverbial: three times, thrice     Multiplier: threefold     Latinate multiplier: triple     Distributive: triply     Germanic collective: trio, threesome     Collective of n parts: triplet     Greek or Latinate collective: triad     Greek collective prefix: tri-     Latinate collective prefix: tri-     Fractional: third     Elemental: triplet     Greek prefix: trito-     Number of musicians: trio, triplet     Number of years: triennium

PIE word
*tréyes

From Middle English thirde, thridde, from Old English þridda, from Proto-Germanic *þridjô, from Pre-Germanic *tretyós, a remodeling of Proto-Indo-European *tr̥tyós.

• (UK) enPR: thûd, IPA^(key): /θɜːd/
• (US) enPR: thûrd, IPA^(key): /θɝd/
• (Ireland) IPA^(key): /tʰʊːɹd/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• (New York City) IPA^(key): /t̪ɔɪd/
• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)d
• Homophone: turd (in some accents)

third (not comparable)

1. The ordinal form of the cardinal number three; Coming after the second.

   The third tree from the left is my favorite.

   • 2012 October 8, Daniel W. Patterson, The True Image: Gravestone Art and the Culture of Scotch Irish Settlers in the Pennsylvania and Carolina Backcountry‎^[1], UNC Press Books, →ISBN, page 141:

     The second and third quarters of the shield are indecipherable on the stone but clearer in two other representations of the arms, a painted wooden funeral hatchment for Mary Davie […]

• 3rd, 3d, IIIrd, III

third (countable and uncountable, plural thirds)

1. The person or thing in the third position.

   Jones came in third.

2. One of three equal parts of a whole.

   He ate a third of the pie. Divided by two-thirds.

   • 2023 December 27, Philip Haigh, “All eyes are on the DfT as rolling stock concerns deepen”, in RAIL, number 999, page 19:

     Despite these uncertainties, Clarke told MPs he was convinced of the need to order trains powered by batteries. He said: "We're calling for a 'no regrets' order of battery trains because we see them always having a future. We see them being fundable, financeable, similar cost to diesel trains, and we know that however much electrification we would aspire to do, there's always going to be at least a third of the network that isn't electrified.

3. (uncountable) The third gear of a gearbox.

   Now put it into third.

4. (music) An interval consisting of the first and third notes in a scale.

   They sing in thirds.

5. (baseball) third base

   The play ended with Jones standing on third.

6. (golf) A handicap of one stroke every third hole.
7. A third-class degree, awarded to the lowest achievers in an honours degree programme
8. (archaic) One sixtieth of a second, i.e., the third in a series of fractional parts in a sexagesimal number system. Also formerly known as a tierce.

• (gear): third gear
• (fractions): third part, ⅓

• riding

third (third-person singular simple present thirds, present participle thirding, simple past and past participle thirded)

1. (informal) To agree with a proposition or statement after it has already been seconded.
2. To divide into three equal parts.

• interval

• drith, thrid

Scots numbers ^(edit)

←  2	3	4  →
Cardinal: three     Ordinal: third

From Middle English thirde, thridde, from Old English þridda, from Proto-Germanic *þridjô, from Pre-Germanic *tretyós, a remodeling of Proto-Indo-European *tr̥tyós.

third

1. third

• “thrid, adj.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, retrieved 21 May 2024, reproduced from William A[lexander] Craigie, A[dam] J[ack] Aitken [et al.], editors, A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue: […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1931–2002, →OCLC.
• “third, adj.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, retrieved 21 May 2024, reproduced from W[illiam] Grant and D[avid] D. Murison, editors, The Scottish National Dictionary, Edinburgh: Scottish National Dictionary Association, 1931–1976, →OCLC.