tris

See also: trīs, tris-, Tris, and TRIS

English

Etymology 1

Chemical structure of tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane

Abbreviation of tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tɹɪs/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪs
• Homophone: Tris

Noun

tris (uncountable)

1. (organic chemistry) A flammable compound which forms a corrosive solution in water and is used as a buffer and emulsifying agent.

Alternative forms

• tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane, tris buffer, THAM
• trometamol, tromethamine (used for drugs)

Etymology 2

Chemical structure of tris(2,3‑dibromopropyl)phosphate

Abbreviation of tris(2,3-dibromopropyl)phosphate.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tɹɪs/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪs
• Homophone: Tris

Noun

tris (uncountable)

1. (organic chemistry) A phosphoric acid ester C₉H₁₅Br₆O₄P formerly used to flameproof clothes and especially children's nightclothes until it was found to cause cancer in animals.

Etymology 3

From tri +‎ -s.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tɹaɪz/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪz
• Homophone: tries

Noun

tris

1. plural of tri

References

• “tris”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “tris”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

See also

• tris legomenon

Anagrams

• STIR, RTIs, rits, Rist, ISTR, TIRs, stir, SIRT

French

Noun

tris m

1. plural of tri

Anagrams

• tirs

Guinea-Bissau Creole

Guinea-Bissau Creole cardinal numbers

<  2	3	4  >
Cardinal : tris

Etymology

From Portuguese três. Cognate with Kabuverdianu tres.

Numeral

tris

1. three (3)

Italian

Etymology

Alternation of Latin ter (“thrice”) with influence of Italian bis (“twice”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtris/
• Rhymes: -is
• Hyphenation: trìs

Noun

tris m (invariable)

1. prile
2. (card games, poker) three of a kind
3. trio (three varieties as a unit)

   Un tris di baccalà ― (please add an English translation of this usage example)

   il tris di primi piatti ― (please add an English translation of this usage example)

4. (games) tic-tac-toe

Further reading

• tris in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈtriːs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈtris]

Numeral

trīs

1. accusative masculine/feminine plural of trēs

Louisiana Creole

Etymology

Inherited from French triste (“sad”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tɾis/
• Rhymes: -is

Adjective

tris

1. sad

   Antonyms: èrè, gé, konten

Old Irish

Etymology

From Proto-Celtic *tristos, from *tri- (“three”) +‎ *steh₂- (“to stand”), literally “third-standing”. The formation is paralleled by Proto-Italic *tristos (“witness”, literally “third standing (by)”).

The original form was tres(s); the i is due analogy with the cardinal.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈt̠ʲɾʲis/

Adjective

Old Irish ordinal numbers

<  2nd	3rd	4th  >
Cardinal : trí     Ordinal : tris

tris

1. third

Inflection

Usually uninflected, but sometimes as an o/ā-stem:

o/ā-stem

singular	masculine	feminine	neuter
nominative	tris	tris	tris
vocative	tris
accusative	tris	tris
genitive	tris	tresi	tris
dative	triuss	tris	triuss
plural	masculine	feminine/neuter
nominative	tris	trisa
vocative	trisu trisa†
accusative	trisu trisa†
genitive	tris
dative	trisaib

† not when substantivized

Descendants

• Middle Irish: tres
  • Irish: treas
  • Manx: trass
  • Scottish Gaelic: treas

Mutation

Mutation of tris

radical	lenition	nasalization
tris	thris	tris pronounced with /d̪̠ʲ-/

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in Old Irish.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

Further reading

• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “2 tress”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language

Slovene

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tríːs/

Noun

trȋs m inan

1. (poker) three of a kind

Declension

The diacritics used in this section of the entry are non-tonal. If you are a native tonal speaker, please help by adding the tonal marks.

Masculine inan., hard o-stem
nom. sing.	tris
gen. sing.	trisa
	singular	dual	plural
nominative (imenovȃlnik)	tris	trisa	trisi
genitive (rodȋlnik)	trisa	trisov	trisov
dative (dajȃlnik)	trisu	trisoma	trisom
accusative (tožȋlnik)	tris	trisa	trise
locative (mẹ̑stnik)	trisu	trisih	trisih
instrumental (orọ̑dnik)	trisom	trisoma	trisi

Further reading

• “tris”, in Slovarji Inštituta za slovenski jezik Frana Ramovša ZRC SAZU (in Slovene), 2014–2026

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɾis/ [ˈt̪ɾis]
• Rhymes: -is
• Syllabification: tris

Noun

tris m (plural tris)

1. crack (sound)

Derived terms

• en un tris

Further reading

• “tris”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025