trinary

English

Etymology

From Late Latin trīnārius (“consisting of three”), from Latin trīni (“triple, three each”) + -ārius.

Adjective

trinary (not comparable)

1. Alternative form of ternary.

Usage notes

• The synonymous form ternary is much more common.

Synonyms

• threefold, treble; see also Thesaurus:triple

Coordinate terms

• binary
• quaternary

Derived terms

• trinary star

Related terms

• triangle
• trinity

Noun

trinary (plural trinaries)

1. (astronomy) A trinary star.
2. A ternary, a set of three things.
   • 2007 December 12, James D. Mardock, Our Scene is London: Ben Jonson's City and the Space of the Author, Routledge, →ISBN, page 124:

     […] a trinary of terms to describe conceived, perceived, and lived space.

   • 2019 March 25, Jolyon Baraka Thomas, Faking Liberties: Religious Freedom in American-Occupied Japan, University of Chicago Press, →ISBN, page 152:

     Collectively, religion, the secular, the superstition form what Josephson has called a "trinary" of mutually constitutive forces.

   • 2023 August 4, Michael Graziano, Errand Into the Wilderness of Mirrors: Religion and the History of the CIA, University of Chicago Press, →ISBN, page 237:

     […] a trinary of expert, governed, and lived religion in order to study how the category of religion has come to be used in academic studies of global religion and secularity.

Anagrams

• nitrary