triphthong
/ˈtɹɪfˌθɒŋ(ɡ)/
"triphthong" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“triphthong” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 10
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A monosyllabic vowel combination usually involving a quick but smooth movement from one vowel to another that passes over a third one.
Corpus desk
Index EN-triphthong · triphthong · English
triphthong · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 10 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "T" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | triphthong |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈtɹɪfˌθɒŋ(ɡ)/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “triphthong” in English
Rare enough to double-check
triphthong is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈtɹɪfˌθɒŋ(ɡ)/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
triphthong doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Etymologically, the entry records: From the Ancient Greek τρίφθογγος (tríphthongos, “triphthong, having three voices”), from τρία (tría, “three”) + φθόγγος (phthóngos, “sound”). The correct English form is triphthong, spelled T-R-I-P-H-T-H-O-N-G.
Definition
- 1A monosyllabic vowel combination usually involving a quick but smooth movement from one vowel to another that passes over a third one.
- 2A disyllabic sequence of a vowel, a semivowel, and a vowel.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how triphthong appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
In Lang Belta vowels usually appear preceding or following a consonant (see previous examples), and as of now no occurrence of diphthongs or triphthongs has been attested.
Before moving on to a solution, it may be worth emphasizing that nouns of the صلوه type originally contained a triphthong. […] In addition to evidence from the Safaitic inscriptions, the discovery of the Graeco-Arabic inscription A1 (Al-Jallad and al-Manaser 2015), where the verb ’tw ‘he came’ is written αθαοα /’atawa/, confirms this to be the case for Ol…
Etymology
From the Ancient Greek τρίφθογγος (tríphthongos, “triphthong, having three voices”), from τρία (tría, “three”) + φθόγγος (phthóngos, “sound”).
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.