triad
/ˈtɹaɪ.æd/noun
triad is spelled T-R-I-A-D: 5 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 1.7 times per million words in written English, the 21,516th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, triad means “A grouping of three” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of triad is triads.
How many letters and syllables are in triad?
| Letters | 5: T-R-I-A-D |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 1.7 times per million words; the 21,516th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
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).
How common is triad?
Triad appears 1.7 times per million words in written English, the 21,516th 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 triad?
- /ˈtɹaɪ.æd/
Triad has 2 syllables (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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-triad.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of triad
- triads plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does triad mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A grouping of three.
- 2
A romantic or sexual relationship between three individuals; a throuple.
- 3
A word of three syllables.
- 4
A branch of a Chinese underground criminal society, mostly based in Hong Kong.
- 5
On a CRT display, a group of three neighbouring phosphor dots, coloured green, red, and blue.
- 6
A chord consisting of a root tone, the tone two degrees higher, and the tone four degrees higher in a given scale OR any chord with three notes.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Triad 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 triad come from?
From Latin triad-, stem of trias (“three, triad”), from Ancient Greek τριάς (triás). By surface analysis, tri- + -ad. Sense 3 (“branch of a Chinese underground criminal society”) is due to the word being applied by the British authorities to underground society in Hong Kong based on the geometry of the Chinese character, derived from a name used by some of those societies, 三合會 /三合会 (sānhéhuì, “Three Harmonies Society”), referring to the union between heaven, earth, and humanity.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).