Tricolon
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A sentence with three clearly defined parts of equal length, usually independent clauses. rhetoric
"By my count, that’s three tricolons in just over 100 words. It’s almost impossible to make A.I. stop saying “It’s not X, it’s Y” — unless you tell it to write a story, in which case it’ll drop the format for a more literary “No X. No Y. Just Z.”"
- 2 The symbol ⟨⁝⟩, a colon with three dots instead of two.
Example
More examples"By my count, that’s three tricolons in just over 100 words. It’s almost impossible to make A.I. stop saying “It’s not X, it’s Y” — unless you tell it to write a story, in which case it’ll drop the format for a more literary “No X. No Y. Just Z.”"
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek τρικωλον (trikōlon), neuter of τρικωλος (trikōlos, “having three parts”). By surface analysis, tri- + colon.
From tri- + colon.
Related phrases
More for "tricolon"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.