third

The person or thing in the third position.

Adjective

  1. The ordinal form of the cardinal number three; Coming after the second.
    • The third tree from the left is my favorite.
    • The second and third quarters of the shield are indecipherable on the stone but clearer in two other representations of the arms, a painted wooden funeral hatchment for Mary Davie[…] - 2012 October 8, Daniel W....
    • “Congress took the lead on putting the HBCU funding in those bills and passing them. The third COVID-19 bill, passed under President Biden, included as much funding for HBCUs as both of the first two Covid-19 bills...

Origin

PIE word *tréyes From Middle English thirde, thridde, from Old English þridda, from Proto-Germanic *þridjô, from Pre-Germanic *tretyós, a remodeling of Proto-Indo-European *tr̥tyós.

Synonyms

3rd 3d IIIrd III tertiary

Derived

adult third culture kid at third hand Earth's third pole Newton's third law petty officer third class safe third country third-act breakup third age third angle projection third art third baseman third best thirdborn third camp third-campism third-campist third class third-class third-class citizen third-class entity third-class object third-class value third conditional third contact

Noun

  1. The person or thing in the third position.
    • Jones came in third.
  2. One of three equal parts of a whole.
    • He ate a third of the pie. Divided by two-thirds.
    • Around a third of both Black and White respondents said they believed the opposition Labour Party to be institutionally racist. - 2020 June 22, Rob Picheta, “Most Black British people think the Conservative Party is...
    • Despite these uncertainties, Clarke told MPs he was convinced of the need to order trains powered by batteries. He said: "We're calling for a 'no regrets' order of battery trains because we see them always having a...

    Synonyms: one-third 1/3

  3. Ellipsis of third gear (of a gearbox).
    • Now put it into third.
  4. An interval consisting of the first and third notes in a scale.
    • They sing in thirds.
  5. third base
    • The play ended with Jones standing on third.
  6. A handicap of one stroke every third hole.
  7. A third-class degree, awarded to the lowest achievers in an honours degree programme
  8. One sixtieth of a second, i.e., the third in a series of fractional parts in a sexagesimal number system.
    • […] thirds (sixtieths of seconds), fourths (sixtieths of thirds) and so on, but then it becomes very cumbersome. - 1994, John David North, The Fontana History of Astronomy and Cosmology, page xxi:

    Synonyms: tierce

Forms

thirds

Related

riding

Derived

augmented third centre third diminished third goal third lower third neutral third one third one-third Picardy third rule of thirds two-thirds two thirds twothirds

Verb

  1. To agree with a proposition or statement after it has already been seconded.
  2. To divide into three equal parts.

Forms

thirds thirding thirded

Related

major third minor third third gear third person interval