trichotomous

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English

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Etymology

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From trichotomy +‎ -ous. Modelled on dichotomous.

Adjective

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trichotomous (not comparable)

  1. Divided into three parts, or into threes; forking three ways.
    • 1793, Thomas Martyn, The Language of Botany:
      a trichotomous stem
  2. (set theory) Such that, for all x and y in X, and for a binary relation R, exactly one of xRy, yRx or x=y holds.
    > is a trichotomous relation, while the relation "divides" over the natural numbers is not.
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