threeness

From three +‎ -ness. Compare Middle English þrinnesse, þrimnesse, þremnesse, þrumnesse (“trinity”, literally “three-ness”), Old English þrīnes, þrinnes (“trinity”, literally “three-ness”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈθɹiːnəs/

threeness (countable and uncountable, plural threenesses)

1. The state of being three; triunity; trinity.
   • 2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin Books, page 218:

     the Cappadocian Fathers provided a way of speaking about the Trinity which would create a balance between threeness and oneness.

   • 2012, Gilles Emery and Matthew Levering, The Oxford Handbook Of The Trinity:

     [...] This statement focuses more on God's oness than on his threeness.

2. A group of three; a trio.
3. (Christianity) The Trinity.
   • 2010, Jeff Bachl, translated by Michael L. Birkel, Genius of the Transcendent: Mystical Writings of Jakob Boehme, Shambhala, translation of original by Jakob Boehme:

     Therefore concern yourselves, you philosophers: how God has created this world in six days. For the work of each day is a creation of a spirit in the Holy Threeness, and the seventh day is the rest of the Sabbath of God, in the seventh [...]

• (state of being three): See also Thesaurus:threeness
• (group of three): threesome, triad, trinity; see also Thesaurus:trio

• retheness, thereness