threesome

English

Etymology

From three +‎ -some.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈθɹiːsəm/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: (UK) -iːsəm

Noun

threesome (plural threesomes)

1. A group of three people or things.
2. An instance of sexual activity involving three people.
   • 2013, Joanna Biggs, "Tell me everything", London Review of Books, vol. 35, no. 7:

     ‘Tell me everything,’ she said to Losse, and when she’d heard everything, got the colleague who kept suggesting a threesome discreetly demoted.

   • 2016, Tim Carvell; Josh Gondelman; Dan Gurewitch; Jeff Maurer; Ben Silva; Will Tracy; Jill Twiss; Seena Vali; Julie Weiner, “Charter Schools”, in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 3, episode 22, HBO, Warner Bros. Television:

     That’s a threesome joke about her fucking children! It was in the first season and they gave her another one!

Synonyms

• (group of three people): triad, trine, trinity, trio, troika, triumvirate; see also Thesaurus:trio
• (sexual activity): ménage à trois, threeway, troilism

Related terms

• twosome, foursome, fivesome, etc.
• moresome

Translations

a group of three people

• Bulgarian: тройка (bg) f (trojka), трио n (trio)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 三人一組／三人一组 (sānrén yīzǔ)

• Danish: trio (da) c
• Dutch: trio (nl) n, drietal (nl) n
• Esperanto: triopo (eo)
• Finnish: kolmikko (fi)
• French: trio (fr) m
• Georgian: სამეული (sameuli), ტრიო (ṭrio)
• Hebrew: שְׁלִישִׁיָּה‎ (he) f (shlishiyá)
• Hungarian: hármas (hu)
• Italian: trio (it) m
• Japanese: 三人組 (sanningumi)
• Korean: 삼총사 (samchongsa), 삼인조 (ko) (saminjo)
• Latgalian: trejūs m, trejuos f
• Latvian: trijatā
• Macedonian: тро́јка f (trójka)
• Maori: tokotoru
• Polish: troje (pl), trójka (pl) f, trio (pl) n
• Portuguese: trio (pt) m
• Romanian: trio (ro) n
• Russian: тро́е (ru) (tróje), тро́йка (ru) f (trójka), три́о (ru) n (trío)
• Serbo-Croatian: trojka (sh) f
• Slovene: trio m
• Spanish: trío (es) m
• Swedish: trio (sv) ?

a sexual activity involving three people

• Bulgarian: тройка (bg) f (trojka)
• Catalan: trio (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 三人性交 (zh) (sānrén xìngjiāo), (slang) 三P (zh) (sān-P)

• Czech: švédská trojka (cs) f
• Danish: trekant (da) c
• Dutch: trio (nl) n, triootje (nl) n
• Finnish: kolmen kimppa, troilismi
• French: ménage à trois (fr) m, plan à trois (fr) m, triolisme (fr) m
• Georgian: სექსი სამში (seksi samši)
• German: Dreier (de) m
• Hebrew: שְׁלִישִׁיָּה‎ (he) f (shlishiyá)
• Hungarian: (édes) hármas
• Icelandic: trekantur
• Japanese: 3P (sanpī)
• Korean: 스리섬 (seuriseom)
• Macedonian: тро́јка f (trójka)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: trekant (no) m

  Nynorsk: trekant m

• Persian: سه نفری‎ (se nafari)
• Polish: trójkąt (pl) m
• Portuguese: ménage à trois m, ménage m, sexo a três m
• Russian: триоли́зм (ru) m (triolízm), секс втроём m (sɛks vtrojóm), тройничо́к (ru) m (trojničók)
• Serbo-Croatian: seks utroje
• Slovene: trojček (sl) m
• Spanish: trío (es) m
• Swedish: trekant (sv) c
• Ukrainian: трійник m (trijnyk)

Anagrams

• motherese