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trident

UK/ˈtɹaɪ̯dənt/US/ˈtɹaɪ̯dənt/
nounB2+Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #10,828 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: tridents

A trident is a spear with three prongs. Poseidon's trident, a fishing trident, raise the trident.

It was a real fishing tool before it was a symbol, and the three prongs make a missed strike much less likely in water. In Roman arenas the retiarius fought with a trident and a net. Britain's nuclear submarines carry a missile of the name. Note that the Latin is simply three teeth.

Definitions of trident

  1. 1nountridentA spear with three prongs.B2+

    “The statue shows the sea god holding a trident above the waves.”

trident is a spear.

Where it comes from

Latin tridens is tri, three, plus dens, a tooth. Dentist and dandelion come from the same tooth.

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *tréyes

  2. Latin

    tridēns

  3. English, today

    trident

From Latin tridēns, from tri- + dēns.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire

Practise this word

trident in the wild

  • The missile is named after the mythological trident of Neptune.

    Trident (missile)

  • The trident is the tool of Poseidon (Greek) or Neptune (Roman) used for the protection of the sea realms by the god of the sea in classical mythology.

    Trident

  • Other sea deities such as Amphitrite or Triton were also often depicted with a trident in classical art.

    Trident

  • Within the middle band is displayed the head of a trident.

    Flag of Barbados

  • The trident loop is a fixed loop knot which can jam when heavily loaded.

    Trident loop

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.