having three units or components or elements; "a ternary operation"; "a treble row of red beads"; "overcrowding made triple sessions necessary"; "triple time has three beats per measure"; "triplex windows"
Proceeding by threes; consisting of three; as, the ternary number was anciently esteemed a symbol of perfection, and held in great veneration
Containing, or consisting of, three different parts, as elements, atoms, groups, or radicals, which are regarded as having different functions or relations in the molecule; thus, sodic hydroxide, NaOH, is a ternary compound
An operator taking three operands, specifically the operator ?: used in many programming languages to select one of two values depending on a third value