ménage à trois

• menage a trois, ménage-à-trois, menage-a-trois

Borrowed from French ménage à trois (literally “household of three”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌmeɪnɑːʒ ɑː ˈt(ɹ)wɑː/, /ˌmɛnɑːʒ ɑː ˈt(ɹ)wɑː/, /məˌnɑːʒ ɑː ˈt(ɹ)wɑː/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌmeɪnɑːʒ ɑː ˈt(ɹ)wɑː/, /ˌmɛnɑːʒ ɑː ˈt(ɹ)wɑː/, /məˌnɑːʒ ɑː ˈt(ɹ)wɑː/, /məˌnɑːʒeɪ ˈt(ɹ)wɑː/
• Rhymes: -ɑː

ménage à trois (plural ménages à trois)

1. A household or relationship whereby three people live together as lovers.
   • 1856, Richard F. Burton, First Footsteps in East Africa, Könemann, published 2000, page 105:

     Old men frequently marry young girls, but then the portion is high and the ménage à trois common.

   • 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter 1, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:

     "We are certainly going to be happy—we three—in this innocent ménage à trois," she said. "I don't know what more you two men could ask for—or I, either—or the children or Eileen.

   • 1920, Anthony Hope, Lucinda‎:

     […] if she frowned—and there could be no doubt that she was frowning now—what lay before him, before them? A scamped and mean ménage à trois, existence eked out with the aid of Mrs. Knyvett’s scanty resources, and soured by her laments!

   • 2001, Sheila Isenberg, A Hero of Our Own, page 134:

     For a while, he lived in a ménage à trois with the poet Paul Eluard and his wife, Gala Diakonova (who would later marry Salvador Dali).

   • 2006, Gene Lees, Portrait of Johnny, page 56:

     I'm not a prude and I wasn't a prude then, but I couldn't see living in a ménage à trois unless the third member were a girl.

2. (sex) A sexual act or experience involving three people; a threesome.

   Synonym: three-way

   Hyponyms: devil's threesome, devil's triangle, devil's threeway

   • 1996, Cyrinda Foxe, in McNeil & McCain, Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk, page 134:

     David and Angela and I had a ménage à trois for about five minutes, but then I made her leave because David and I were gonna play.

   • 1999 November 15, John Cloud, “Henry & Mary & Janet &…”, in Time:

     No, the two guys don't go for each other; the triad tried a ménage à trois once but stopped because Chris thought it was icky.

• (both senses): ménage

• (both senses): ménage à quatre, ménage à moi

• IPA^(key): /me.na.ʒ‿a tʁwa/

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ménage à trois m (plural ménages à trois)

1. ménage à trois

   Near-synonyms: triangle amoureux, trouple

2. ménage à trois; a household of three
3. a trio

• triolisme
• plan à trois

Unadapted borrowing from French ménage à trois (literally “household of three”).

ménage à trois f or m (plural ménages à trois)

1. (sex) ménage à trois; threesome (a sexual activity involving three people)

   Synonym: ménage