different between triad vs subdominant

English

Etymology

From Latin triad-, stem of trias (“three, triad”), from Ancient Greek ????? (triás).

Sense 3 (“branch of a Chinese underground criminal society”) is due to the word being applied by the British authorities to underground society in Hong Kong based on the geometry of the Chinese character.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?t?a?.æd/

Noun

triad (plural triads)

1. A grouping of three.

   Synonyms: threesome, trine, trinity, trio, triplet, troika, triumvirate; see also Thesaurus:trio
2. A word of three syllables.

   Synonym: trisyllable
3. A branch of a Chinese underground criminal society, mostly based in Hong Kong.
4. (electronics) on a CRT display, a group of three neighbouring phosphor dots, coloured green, red, and blue.
5. (music) A chord consisting of a root tone, the tone two degrees higher, and the tone four degrees higher in a given scale.

Coordinate terms

• (group) monad, duad/dyad, triad, tetrad, pentad, hexad, heptad, octad, ennead/nonad, decad/decade, hendecad, dodecad/duodecade, chiliad
• (word of four syllables): quaternion

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• mafia
• tong
• yakuza

Further reading

• triad on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• drait, iTard

English

Etymology

From sub- +? dominant.

Noun

subdominant (plural subdominants)

1. (music) The fourth tone of a scale.
2. (music) The triad built on the subdominant tone.

Related terms

• subdominance

Translations