trey

T1R1E1Y4
/tɹeɪ/

noun

A playing card or die with the rank of three.

Less commonScrabble 7

Meanings

trey1

nountrey (plural treys)

plural treys

  1. occasionally dice gamescard gamesA playing card or die with the rank of three.

    He had been a pretty good guy, straight as ace-deuce-trey-four-five, till he got on the force.

    1929, Dashiell Hammett, chapter 11, in Red Harvest
    3 more examples

    Before you begin the Game at Picket, you must throw out of the Pack the Deuces, Treys, Fours and Fives, and play with the rest of the Cards, which are in number thirty and six.

    1674, Charles Cotton, chapter 6, in The Compleat Gamester, London: R. Cutler, page 81

    You see, Sir, when I look at the Ace it reminds me that there is but one God. The deuce reminds me that the bible is divided into two parts; the Old and New Testaments. And when I see the trey I think of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

    1948 January 1, “Deck of Cards” (track 20), in Famous Country Music Makers, performed by Tex Ritter

    Davidson had caught a trey which did not seem to improve his hand, yet he threw three dollars into the pot.

    1982, Stephen King, The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands
  2. card gamesA score of three in cards, dice, or dominoes.
  3. CanadaUSinformalobsoleteball gamesA three-pointer.
  4. AustraliainformalA three penny coin; a thrippence.
  5. informalThe third bearer of the same personal name in a family, often denoted by suffixed Roman numeral III.
  6. The third branch of a deer's antler.

Trey2

proper noun
  1. A nickname for someone who is the third person in the family sharing his father's name.
  2. A male given name from English of modern usage, derived from the nickname.

Synonyms & antonyms

nounthe cardinal number that is the sum of one and one and one

nounone of four playing cards in a deck having three pips

Similar

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

  1. Old Frenchtreis“three”
  2. Anglo-Normantrei
  3. Middle Englishtrey
  4. Englishtrey

PIE word *tréyes From Middle English trey, from Anglo-Norman trei or treis, from Old French treis (“three”). Doublet of three and tres.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Bulgarian тройка
  • тройка (trojka)playing card
Czech trojka
  • trojkaplaying card
Finnish kolmonen, kolmonen
  • kolmonenplaying card
  • kolmonenscore
Japanese トレイ, トレイ
  • トレイ (torei)playing card
  • トレイ (torei)score
Korean 트레이
  • 트레이 (teurei)playing card
Polish dryja
  • dryjascore
Portuguese terno, três
  • ternoplaying card
  • trêsplaying card
Swedish trea
  • treaplaying card

Rhymes & wordplay

Rhymes with trey

All rhymes →

Sounds the same

traytrait (one pronunciation)

Anagrams

Cite this entry
APA

trey. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/trey

MLA

“trey.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/trey. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “trey,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/trey.

Source: trey on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.