three
/θɹiː/number, noun
three is spelled T-H-R-E-E. The wrong spelling people search most is threee: about 60 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 139 of all searches for the word. Three is a number meaning “A numerical value equal to 3; the number following two and preceding four”.
How many letters and syllables are in three?
| Letters | 5: T-H-R-E-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 603 times per million words; the 162nd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, threee, about 60 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Pairs people search | |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell three?
Three is spelled T-H-R-E-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 139 of the searches for three in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is three?
Three appears 603 times per million words in written English, the 162nd most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce three?
- British /θɹɪj/
- UK /θɹiː/
- UK [θɾ̪̊iː]
Three has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-three.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with three
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Also written: thre.
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with three?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as three from its last stressed vowel (/i/, British pronunciation):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: there, ether, heter.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of three
- free
- tree
- t'ree
- threes plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does three mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
number
- 1
A numerical value equal to 3; the number following two and preceding four.
- 2
Describing a set or group with three elements.
noun
- 1
The digit/figure 3.
- 2
Anything measuring three units, as length.
Put all the threes in a separate container.
- 3
A person who is three years old.
All the threes will go in Mrs. Smith's class, while I'll take the fours and fives.
- 4
The playing card featuring three pips.
- 5
Three o'clock, either a.m. or p.m.
- 6
Abbreviation of three-pointer.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Three in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does three come from?
From Middle English thre, threo, thrie, thri, from Old English þrī, from Proto-West Germanic *þrīʀ, from Proto-Germanic *þrīz, from Proto-Indo-European *tréyes. Doublet of tres and trey.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What to look up after three
- three or tree? the difference
- free or three? the difference
- free rhymes with three
- ski rhymes with three
- threateningly the entry before
- threefold the entry after
- English words starting with T the most written first
- The most misspelled English words
- Count the syllables of any word
- Check the spelling of a text