adj ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective

1. 1
   Divided into three parts, or into threes; forking three ways. not-comparable

   "a trichotomous stem"

2. 2
   Such that, for all x and y in X, and for a binary relation R, exactly one of xRy, yRx or x=y holds. not-comparable

   "> is a trichotomous relation, while the relation "divides" over the natural numbers is not."

Synonyms

All synonyms

deltoidtetrachotomousthree dimensionaltriangulartridenttrifurcate

Example

More examples

"> is a trichotomous relation, while the relation "divides" over the natural numbers is not."

Etymology

From trichotomy + -ous. Modelled on dichotomous.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.