Standard Lemma guide

triode

noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

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  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈtɹaɪ.əʊd/
  • General-American: /ˈtɹaɪ.oʊd/
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -aɪəʊd

1

noun

Meaning 1

A thermionic valve containing an anode, a cathode, and a control grid; small changes to the charge on the grid control the flow from cathode to anode, which makes amplification possible.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: business, electrical-engineering, electricity, electromagnetism, electronics, energy, engineering, natural-sciences, physical-sciences, physics

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

a thermionic vacuum tube having three electrodes; fluctuations of the charge on the grid control the flow from cathode to anode which makes amplification possible

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: tube, vacuum tube, thermionic vacuum tube, thermionic tube, electron tube, thermionic valve

History

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *tréyes Proto-Indo-European *tri- Proto-Italic *tri- Latin tri-der. English tri- Proto-Indo-European *sed-der. Proto-Indo-European *sodós? Proto-Hellenic *hodós Ancient Greek ὁδός (hodós)bor. English -ode English triode From tri- + -ode.

Across languages

Translations

29 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Bashkir: триод (triod) — thermionic valve
  • Bulgarian: триод (triod) — thermionic valve
  • Catalan: tríode — thermionic valve
  • Chinese Mandarin: 三極管 /三极管 (sānjíguǎn) — thermionic valve
  • Czech: trioda — thermionic valve
  • Danish: triode — thermionic valve
  • Dutch: triode — thermionic valve
  • Finnish: triodi — thermionic valve
  • French: triode — thermionic valve
  • Galician: tríodo — thermionic valve
  • German: Triode — thermionic valve
  • Hungarian: trióda — thermionic valve
  • Italian: triodo — thermionic valve
  • Japanese: 三極管 (sankyokukan) — thermionic valve
  • Kazakh: триод (triod) — thermionic valve
  • Kyrgyz: триод (triod) — thermionic valve
  • Macedonian: триода (trioda) — thermionic valve
  • Norwegian Bokmål: triode — thermionic valve
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: triode — thermionic valve
  • Polish: trioda — thermionic valve
  • Portuguese: tríodo — thermionic valve
  • Romanian: triodă — thermionic valve
  • Russian: трио́д (triód) — thermionic valve
  • Serbo-Croatian: трио́да — thermionic valve
  • Serbo-Croatian: trióda — thermionic valve
  • Spanish: triodo — thermionic valve
  • Swedish: triod — thermionic valve
  • Tagalog: talundas — thermionic valve
  • Vietnamese: ống ba cực — thermionic valve