trident

English

Etymology

PIE word
*tréyes

From Latin tridēns, from tri- (“three”) +‎ dēns (“tooth”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɹaɪ̯dənt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

trident (plural tridents)

1. A three-pronged spear somewhat resembling a pitchfork.

   Poseidon's trident

   • 1951 October, R. S. McNaught, “Lines of Approach”, in Railway Magazine, pages 703-704:

     I recall the height of comfort attained by the green-cushioned "first" with starched white antimacassars and a pretentious grey floor mat on which it seemed a sacrilege to stand, as it was embellished with the North Western conception of Britannia, complete with trident.

2. (geometry) A curve of third order of the form:

   $xy+a{x}^3+b{x}^2+cx=d$

Synonyms

• (curve): trident curve

Derived terms

• impossible trident
• tridental
• trident bat
• Trident Board
• tridented
• tridentlike

Translations

three-pronged spear — see also pitchfork

• Albanian: tërfurk (sq) m
• Armenian: please add this translation if you can
• Basque: hiruhortz
• Bengali: ত্রিশূল (bn) (triśul)
• Breton: forh a dri biz
• Bulgarian: тризъбец m (trizăbec)
• Catalan: trident (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 三叉戟 (zh) (sānchājǐ), 三叉槍 / 三叉枪 (sānchāqiāng)

• Crimean Tatar: trızub (Ukrainian national emblem)
• Czech: trojzubec m
• Dutch: drietand (nl) m
• Esperanto: tridento
• Estonian: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: atrain (fi), kolmikärki (fi)
• French: trident (fr) m
• Galician: tridente m
• Georgian: სამკაპი (ka) (samḳaṗi), სამკბილა (samḳbila)
• German: Dreizack (de) m
• Greek: τρίαινα (el) f (tríaina)

  Ancient Greek: τρίαινα f (tríaina), θρῖναξ f (thrînax)

• Gujarati: ત્રિશૂળ (triśūḷ)
• Hindi: त्रिशूल (hi) (triśūl)
• Hungarian: háromágú szigony (hu), tridens
• Icelandic: þríforkur m
• Ido: tridento (io)
• Indonesian: trisula (id)
• Irish: trírinn f, adhal m
• Italian: tridente (it) m
• Japanese: 三叉槍 (sansasō), トライデント (toraidento)
• Kannada: ತ್ರಿಶೂಲ (kn) (triśūla)
• Khmer: ត្រីសូល៍ (treisol៍), ច្បូក (km) (cbouk)
• Korean: 삼지창(三枝槍) (ko) (samjichang)
• Latin: fuscina f, tridēns m
• Latvian: trijzobs m
• Lithuanian: trišakis
• Macedonian: тризабец m (trizabec)
• Malay: serampang, trisula
• Malayalam: ത്രിശൂലം (ml) (triśūlaṁ)
• Marathi: त्रिशूळ (triśūḷ), त्रिशूल m (triśūl)
• Nepali: त्रिशूल (triśūl)
• Norwegian: trefork

  Nynorsk: trefork m

• Occitan: trident m
• Persian: شل (fa) (šel)
• Polish: trójząb (pl) m
• Portuguese: tridente m
• Romanian: trident (ro) n
• Russian: трезу́бец (ru) m (trezúbec)
• Sanskrit: त्रिशूल (sa) m (triśūla)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: трозубац m

  Latin: trozubac (sh) m

• Sinhalese: ත්‍රිශූලය (triśūlaya)
• Slovak: trojzub m
• Slovene: trizob (sl)
• Spanish: tridente (es) m
• Swahili: tridenti
• Swedish: treudd (sv) c
• Telugu: త్రిశూలం (triśūlaṁ), త్రిశూలము (te) (triśūlamu)
• Thai: ตรีศูล (dtrii-sǔun)
• Turkish: trident
• Ukrainian: тризу́бець m (tryzúbecʹ) (other tridents), тризу́б m (tryzúb) (Ukrainian national emblem)
• Vietnamese: đinh ba (vi), ba chĩa (vi)
• Welsh: tryfer f

See also

• trisula (Hindu trident)
• tryzub (Ukrainian trident)

Further reading

• Trident curve on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• dritten

Catalan

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin tridentem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Northern) [tɾiˈðe̞n]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic, Valencia) [tɾiˈðent]
• IPA^(key): (Central, Northwestern) [tɾiˈðen]

Noun

trident m (plural tridents)

1. trident

Further reading

• “trident”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “trident”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2026
• “trident” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• Alcover, Antoni Maria; Moll, Francesc de Borja (1963), “trident”, in Diccionari català-valencià-balear (in Catalan)

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tʁi.dɑ̃/

• Audio (Switzerland (Valais)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

Noun

trident m (plural tridents)

1. trident

Further reading

• “trident”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Norwegian Bokmål

Poseidon holding a trident on an Attic red-figure amphora.

Etymology

PIE word
*tréyes

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *tréyes

Proto-Indo-European *tri-

Proto-Italic *tri-

Latin tri-

Proto-Indo-European *h₃ed-

Proto-Indo-European *-ónts

Proto-Indo-European *h₃dónts

Proto-Italic *dents

Latin dēns

Latin tridēnsbor.

Norwegian Bokmål trident

Borrowed from Latin tridēns (“trident, three-pronged spear”), from tri- (“three”) +‎ dēns (“tooth”), literally “three-toothed”.

The first element, Latin tri- (“three”), is from Proto-Italic Proto-Italic *tri- (“three”), from Proto-Indo-European Proto-Indo-European *tri- (“three”), ultimately from *tréyes (“three”).

The second element, Latin dēns (“tooth”), is from Proto-Italic Proto-Italic *dents (“tooth”), from Proto-Indo-European Proto-Indo-European *h₃dónts (“tooth”), originally an active participial formation from the root *h₃ed- (“to bite”).

Compare French trident, Catalan trident, Spanish tridente, Italian tridente, Galician tridente and English trident.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /trɪˈdɛnt/, [tɾɪˈdɛnt]
• Rhymes: -ɛnt
• Hyphenation: tri‧dent

Noun

trident m (definite singular tridenten, indefinite plural tridenter, definite plural tridentene)

1. a trident; a three-pronged spear or fork, especially the traditional attribute of the sea god Poseidon or Neptune

   Synonym: trefork

   Poseidon blir ofte avbildet med en trident. ― Poseidon is often depicted with a trident.

   • 2022 December 29, Hege Svanes, “Det mest meningsfulle jeg har gjort i Forsvaret”, in Forsvaret‎^[1], archived from the original on 18 September 2026:

     På flagget Jon-Helge fikk, var også Ukrainas nasjonalsymbol trykket på, en trident – et tretagget spyd.

     The flag Jon-Helge received also bore Ukraine's national symbol, a trident – a three-pronged spear.

References

• “trident” in Norwegian Academy Dictionary (NAOB).
• “trident” in Store norske leksikon

Anagrams

• dritten

Romanian

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *tréyes

Proto-Indo-European *tri-

Proto-Italic *tri-

Latin tri-

Proto-Indo-European *h₃ed-

Proto-Indo-European *-ónts

Proto-Indo-European *h₃dónts

Proto-Italic *dents

Latin dēns

Latin tridēns

French tridentbor.

Romanian trident

Borrowed from French trident, from Latin tridēns.

Noun

trident n (plural tridente)

1. trident

Declension

	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	trident	tridentul	tridente	tridentele
genitive-dative	trident	tridentului	tridente	tridentelor
vocative	tridentule		tridentelor