ménage à trois
3
9.9
- noun
- /meɪˈnɑːʒ ə twɑː/
- NSFW
:
ménage à trois
- Say, what's the policy on ménage à trois?
Examples
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Have you ever had a ménage à trois?
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Ready for a little ménage à trois?
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Maybe it was my first ménage à trois.
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What I really want is a ménage à trois.
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We could have a ménage à trois.
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What's this, a kind of ménage à trois?
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I live in Manhattan with two men who I love in a very happy ménage à trois.
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We could've had a nice ménage à trois.
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I live in Manhattan with two men who I love in a very happy ménage à trois.
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To indulge in a successful ménage à trois, you need to know the real rules of threesome sex.
Synonyms
A romantic relationship with three people who are all partners with each other
A romantic relationship shared by three partners
Surface Forms
Morphology
ménage + à + trois
The French components literally mean 'household of three' (ménage = household, à = of, trois = three), so a learner who knows those words can infer a three-person cohabitation. However, the usual English usage carries an idiomatic sexual/romantic connotation (a three-person sexual relationship) that is not fully predictable from the literal composition, making the phrase only partially transparent.
Etymology
Ménage à trois comes from French words: ménage meaning 'household' and à trois meaning 'for three'. Imagine three people sharing one home and a close romantic and sexual life, and that's why the phrase now means 'three people living together and sharing sexual relations'.