trichotomous
English
Etymology
trichotomy + -ous. Modelled on dichotomous.
Adjective
trichotomous (not comparable)
- Divided into three parts, or into threes; forking three ways.
- 1793, Thomas Martyn, The Language of Botany
- a trichotomous stem
- 1793, Thomas Martyn, The Language of Botany
- (set theory) Such that, for all x and y in X, and for a binary relation R, exactly one of xRy, yRx or x=y holds.
- > is a trichotomous relation, while the relation "divides" over the natural numbers is not.