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tripos

UK /ˈtɹaɪpɒs/noun

tripos is a noun meaning “Any of the final examinations for a BA honours degree” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled T-R-I-P-O-S, and it appears about once in every 9 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of tripos is triposes.

What does tripos mean?

noun

  1. 1

    obsoleteA three-legged structure; a tripod.

    Thales sent the golden tripos, which the fishermen found and the oracle commanded to be “given to the wisest”, to Bias, Bias to Solon, etc.

  2. 2

    Any of the final examinations for a BA honours degree.

    It's time you thought. The Tripos is the beginning of life, not the end. In less than two years you will have got your B.A. What are you going to do with it?

  3. 3

    The list of successful candidates in such an examination.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you pronounce tripos?

  • UK /ˈtɹaɪpɒs/

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-uk-tripos.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of tripos

  • triposes plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How common is tripos?

Tripos appears about once in every 9 million words in written English, the 90,432nd 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).

Where does tripos come from?

Alteration of tripus, as though with a Greek ending. For the examination: the word is supposed to refer to the three-legged stool formerly used at the examinations for these honours, though some derive it from the three brackets formerly printed on the back of the paper. The etymon of tripus is the Ancient Greek τρίπους (trípous, “triple-footed”), (from τρι- (tri-, “three”) and πούς (poús, “foot”)).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).