: the harmonic combination of two tones a third apart
6
thirds plural: merchandise whose quality falls below the manufacturer's standard for seconds
Example Sentences
Adjective We sat in the third row. the third house on the left C is the third letter in the alphabet. That's the third time I've seen him today. The office is on the third floor. Do you have a third choice? a third share in the profits a third pound of cheese Noun The win was his third of the year. a third of the pie Rent costs two-thirds of my paycheck. She divided the cookie into thirds. See More
Recent Examples on the Web
Adjective
Jose Trevino beat third baseman Matt Chapman’s off-balance throw for an infield hit and was sacrificed to second. Larry Fleisher, BostonGlobe.com, 21 Aug. 2022 Jose Trevino beat third baseman Matt Chapman’s off-balance throw for an infield hit and was sacrificed to second. Larry Fleisher, Hartford Courant, 21 Aug. 2022 Jose Trevino beat third baseman Matt Chapman’s off-balance throw for an infield hit and was sacrificed to second. Larry Fleisher, ajc, 21 Aug. 2022 Rosario evened the score, 4-4, with an RBI single on a weak grounder to third baseman Willi Castro. Evan Petzold, Detroit Free Press, 18 Aug. 2022 All Star third baseman Jose Ramirez were considered the two most formidable hitters on what would become the youngest team in baseball. Bernie Pleskoff, Forbes, 8 Aug. 2022 Another South American horse, Paseana, won seven straight races from November of 1991 to July of 1992 and gave McAnally a third Breeders’ Cup Distaff win.San Diego Union-Tribune, 26 Aug. 2022 Croft, a trucker from Delaware, is also charged with the two conspiracies, as well as a third charge for possession of an unregistered destructive device. Tresa Baldas, Detroit Free Press, 19 Aug. 2022 Providence, Rhode Island had less than half an inch of rainfall in the third driest July on record, and Boston had six-tenths of an inch in the fourth driest July on record, according to the National Weather Service office in Norton, Massachusetts. Jennifer Mcdermott, BostonGlobe.com, 16 Aug. 2022
Noun
Both Portland and Chelsea took a while to feel each other out Saturday, with most of the early portion of the match played in the middle third of the field.oregonlive, 20 Aug. 2022 Two driveways from the development will access Old Grove Road, and a third will be on Frazee Road. Phil Diehl, San Diego Union-Tribune, 29 Nov. 2020 Housing is considered affordable if people are spending up to a third of their incomes on housing costs, and rental housing tends to be more accessible for people with lower-incomes.Hartford Courant, 30 Aug. 2022 To be sure, well-being evaluations conducted to date do suggest that up to a third of LIS patients report being severely unhappy. Jonathan Moens, Ars Technica, 8 Aug. 2022 One third of the animal’s meat goes to the needy; another third of the meat is distributed to family, friends and neighbors; and the last third of the meat is used at home. Manal Aman, Woman's Day, 7 June 2022 The last third of the film focuses on a subset of the passengers and crew, who wash up on an island and quickly realize that none of them has the skills to last even a few days in the wild. Peter Debruge, Variety, 21 May 2022 The last third of the film plays like a thriller and then a tragedy. Taylor Antrim, Vogue, 11 Apr. 2022 The last third of his life was spent mostly in Prouts Neck, a slip of land on the coast of Maine where his family had acquired property. Susan Tallman, The Atlantic, 6 Apr. 2022 See More
Word History
Etymology
Adjective
Middle English thridde, thirde, from Old English thridda, thirdda; akin to Latin tertius third, Greek tritos, treis three — more at three
First Known Use
Adjective
before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a