English Word Reference Free

triumvirate

Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.

Letters

11 characters

Language

English

word origin

Source

Wiktionary

open dictionary

Access

Free

no sign-up needed

Detailed reference entry for the English word "triumvirate", 11-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "triumvirate" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "triumvirate" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

triumvirate is aEnglishnoun. It means: A council of three magistrates ruling jointly; specifically, the First Triumvirate (60 or 59 – 53 B.C.E.) or the Second Triumvirate (43 – 33 or 27 B.C.E.); the office of a triumvir (“one of such ma... Pronounced /tɹaɪˈʌmvəɹət/.

Compare similar words

See how triumvirate compares against similar English words.

Browse all word comparisons →
Key facts for triumvirate
PropertyValue
Headwordtriumvirate
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/tɹaɪˈʌmvəɹət/
Letters11
Frequency rank#50,284
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of triumvirate in English word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for triumvirate is 11 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /tɹaɪˈʌmvəɹət/. Corpus data places it at rank #50,284 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

No frequent misspelling variants are recorded for triumvirate in our index, suggesting the orthography either follows predictable English patterns or the word is uncommon enough that typo corpora lack signal.It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *tréyes Proto-Italic *trēs Latin trium Proto-Indo-European *weyh₁-? Proto-Indo-European *wiHrós Proto-Italic *wiros Latin vir Latin triumvir Proto-Indo-European *-tus Proto-Italic *-tus Latin -tus, -tūs Latin -ātus Latin t… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is triumvirate, spelled T-R-I-U-M-V-I-R-A-T-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    A council of three magistrates ruling jointly; specifically, the First Triumvirate (60 or 59 – 53 B.C.E.) or the Second Triumvirate (43 – 33 or 27 B.C.E.); the office of a triumvir (“one of such magistrates”), or of the three triumviri.
  2. 2
    Any group of three joint rulers.
  3. 3
    Any group of three people regarded as significant in some way; also (rare), a group of three things; a trio.

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *tréyes Proto-Italic *trēs Latin trium Proto-Indo-European *weyh₁-? Proto-Indo-European *wiHrós Proto-Italic *wiros Latin vir Latin triumvir Proto-Indo-European *-tus Proto-Italic *-tus Latin -tus, -tūs Latin -ātus Latin triumvirātuslbor. ▲ Latin -ātusder. English -ate English triumvirate Learned borrowing from Latin triumvirātus (“triumvirate”) (see -ate (suffix forming nouns denoting offices or ranks)), itself derived from triumvir (“member of a triumvirate”) + -ātus (“-ate”, suffix forming nouns denoting offices or ranks, or groups of officials associated with such offices or ranks); and triumvir from trium (“of three”) (the genitive form of trēs (“three”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *tréyes (“three”)) + vir (“adult male human, man”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *wiHrós (“man”)). By surface analysis, triumvir + -ate.

This word in other languages

Frequency rank: #50,284 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "triumvirate"?
"triumvirate" is spelled T-R-I-U-M-V-I-R-A-T-E. The IPA pronunciation is /tɹaɪˈʌmvəɹət/.
What does "triumvirate" mean?
As a noun, "triumvirate" means: A council of three magistrates ruling jointly; specifically, the First Triumvirate (60 or 59 – 53 B.C.E.) or the Second Triumvirate (43 – 33 or 27 B.C.E.); the office of a triumvir (“one of such ma...
How do you pronounce "triumvirate"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "triumvirate" is /tɹaɪˈʌmvəɹət/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "triumvirate"?
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *tréyes Proto-Italic *trēs Latin trium Proto-Indo-European *weyh₁-? Proto-Indo-European *wiHrós Proto-Italic *wiros Latin vir Latin triumvir Proto-Indo-European *-tus Proto-Italic *-tus Latin -tus, -tūs Latin -āt... See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Nearby English words

Other entries that begin with the letter T in our English index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.