Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Trefoil |
TrefoilNoun1. Any of several Old World herbs of the genus Medicago having small flowers and trifoliate compound leaves. 2. A plant of the genus Trifolium. 3. An architectural ornament in the form of three arcs arranged in a circle. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "trefoil" was first used: 1384. (references) |
Etymology: Trefoil \Tre"foil\, noun. [Latin expression tres three English foil leaf; compare to French fr[`e]fle, Italian trifoglio, from Latin expression trifolium. See Tri-, Foil leaf, and compare to Trifoly.]. (Websters 1913) |
Synonyms: TrefoilSynonyms: clover (n), medic (n), medick (n). (additional references) |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Trefoil is also a common name for some kinds of clover, who have three-foiled leaves.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Trefoil."
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Triality | Three, triad, triplet, trey, trio, ternion, leash; shamrock, tierce, spike-team, trefoil; triangle, trident, triennium, trigon, trinomial, trionym, triplopia, tripod, trireme, triseme, triskele, triskelion, trisula. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Trefoil |
| English words defined with "trefoil": Bottone, Buck bean ♦ Cross bottony ♦ Desmodium ♦ genus Desmodium ♦ Septfoil, Snail clover ♦ Trefle, Trifoly. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "trefoil": Angel-water ♦ Radiation warning symbol. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "trefoil": shamrock ♦ Trifoly. (references) |
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Birdsfoot trefoil contains tannin, a natural antibloating compound. Credit: USDA ARS News. |  | Birdfoot Trefoil (Lotus corniculatus) along the roadside near Lost Creek Lake. Credit: Terry Tuttle. |
 | Close up of Birdfoot Trefoil (Lotus corniculatus) along the roadside near Lost Creek Lake. Credit: Terry Tuttle. | ||
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| "Trefoil" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 83.33% of the time. "Trefoil" is used about 24 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 83.33% | 20 | 78,262 |
| Noun (proper) | 12.5% | 3 | 202,518 |
| Lexical Verb (base form) | 4.17% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 24 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "trefoil": Bean trefoil ♦ bird's foot trefoil ♦ lesser yellow trefoil ♦ marsh trefoil ♦ moon trefoil ♦ prairie trefoil ♦ snail trefoil ♦ stinking bean trefoil ♦ Thorny trefoil ♦ tick trefoil ♦ trefoil arch ♦ water trefoil ♦ yellow trefoil. Additional references. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
trefoil | 54 |
birdsfoot trefoil | 15 |
girl scout trefoil | 7 |
bird foot trefoil | 5 |
celtic trefoil | 5 |
adidas trefoil | 4 |
radiation trefoil | 2 |
celtic druids trefoil | 2 |
symbol trefoil | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "trefoil"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | tërfil (clover, shamrock), zbukurim në formë tërfili. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | البرسيم, ثلاثية الوريقات (trifoliate). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | трилистна детелина, трилистник. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | jetel (clover). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | humle-sneglebælg (black medic, black medick, yellow clover, yellow trefoil), humlesneglebælg (black medic, black medick, yellow clover, yellow trefoil). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | klaver (clover, shamrock), hopperupsklaver (black medic, black medick, yellow clover, yellow trefoil), hopklaver (black medic, black medick, yellow clover, yellow trefoil). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Faeroese | smæra (clover, shamrock). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | nurmimailanen (black medic, black medick, yellow clover, yellow trefoil). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | trèfle. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | Klee (clover, shamrock), Kleeblatt (cloverleaf, shamrock). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | μηδική η λυκίσκη (black medic, black medick, yellow clover, yellow trefoil), μηδική η αλουπουλίνα (black medic, black medick, yellow clover, yellow trefoil), τριφύλλι (alfalfa, clover, shamrock). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | תלתן (clover, shamrock), 'ר'ר ית (fenugreek, trigonella). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | lóhere (clover, shamrock). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | trifoglio (clover, shamrock), luppolina (black medic, black medick, yellow clover, yellow trefoil), lupolina (nonesuch). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | shamrag (clover, shamrock). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Norwegian | kløver (clover, shamrock). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | efoiltray trevo (clover, clubs, shamrock). (various references) трилистник (shamrock). (various references) seamrag (clover, shamrock). (various references) trolist. (various references) trébol (clover, club, shamrock), mielga azafranada (black medic, black medick, yellow clover, yellow trefoil), medicago negro (black medic, black medick, yellow clover, yellow trefoil), lupulina (black medic, black medick, yellow clover, yellow trefoil), alfalfa lupulina (black medic, black medick, yellow clover, yellow trefoil). (various references) väppling (clover, shamrock), klöver (clover, shamrock). (various references) yonca (clover, shamrock, trifolium). (various references) трилистий, трилисник (shamrock), конюшина (clover). (various references) hình ba lá; có ba lá, con nhép. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | Medicago lupulina, Medicago lupulina L., trifolium. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "trefoil": trefoils. (additional references) | |
Words ending with "trefoil": quatrefoil. (additional references) | |
Words containing "trefoil": quatrefoils. (additional references) | |
| |
"Trefoil" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: terfoil, Threfall, trayful, Trefil, trefoiled, trefoilers, Trefri, trefriw, Tregoe, Tremoille, trifoil, triforia. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| Words rhyming with "trefoil" (pronounced 'Tre"foil'): Cinquefoil, Septfoil, Setfoil. (additional references) |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
Direct Anagrams: loftier. | |
| Words within the letters "e-f-i-l-o-r-t" | |
-1 letter: filter, floret, lifter, lofter, loiter, toiler, trifle. | |
-2 letters: fetor, filer, filet, flier, flirt, flite, forte, lifer, lirot, liter, litre, ofter, oiler, oriel, refit, relit, reoil, rifle, teloi, tiler, toile, triol. | |
-3 letters: felt, file, filo, fire, flit, floe, foil, fore, fort, fret, frit, froe, left, lief, lier, life, lift, lire, lite, loft, lore, loti. | |
| Words containing the letters "e-f-i-l-o-r-t" | |
+1 letter: floatier, fluorite, trefoils. | |
+2 letters: floriated, fluorites, forestial, fortalice, frontline, interflow, interfold, reflation. | |
+3 letters: clofibrate, defoliator, floweriest, fluoridate, fluorinate, forklifted, fortalices, fosterling, interfolds, outfielder, overflight, perfoliate, profitable, profitless, profligate, quatrefoil, reflations, reflection, refloating, shoplifter, toploftier, trifoliate, twinflower, wolframite. | |
+4 letters: clofibrates, counterfoil, defloration, defoliators, factorylike, felicitator, floridities, floristries, fluoridated, fluoridates, fluorimeter, fluorimetry, fluorinated, fluorinates, foretelling, forfeitable, formalities, formatively, fosterlings, frivolities, interfolded, lactiferous, loosestrife, outfielders, overflights, overinflate, patelliform, profiterole, profligates, proliferate, quatrefoils, reflections, reinflation, shoplifters, twinflowers, wolframites. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Images: Slideshow 6. Images: Photo Album 7. Usage Frequency 8. Expressions | 9. Expressions: Internet 10. Translations: Modern 11. Translations: Ancient 12. Derivations | 13. Rhymes 14. Anagrams 15. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
