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three times

three times

449 1.0
To multiply a number or amount by three
  • adverb
translation icon : tres veces
  • That is more than three times the average annual number.
  • three times as likely
  • three times more
  • three times as many

It's found two or three times more often in boys than in girls.

Examples

  • Patients should be encouraged to 'tip' for at least 10 minutes, three times daily.

    Academic text (2011)
  • Sure enough, gamma radiation levels were up in the monastery, three times that of normal background radiation.

    Fiction book (1993)
  • How many of you exercise three times a week or more?

  • Look, Sir, I think I can get three times what you offered.

  • It's found two or three times more often in boys than in girls.

  • We can meet three times a week.

  • In general, older women are three times as likely as older men to live alone.

    Academic text (1990)
  • The two classes met three times a week for the first four weeks of the semester.

    Academic text (2008)
  • Thus, the average annual incomes of the city communities were three times those of the village communities.

    Academic text (2008)
  • She practices yoga three times a week to improve her flexibility.

Synonyms

thrice
vsthree times
  • Archaic
3 8.2

Happens three times

expresses multiplication rather than a count of occasions
threefold
vsthree times
1 3.9

By three times as much

is the basic numeric expression for that multiplication
trifold
vsthree times
5.6

Three times the normal amount or size

is the general multiplicative sense used for amount or degree

How Many

four times
136 1.0
three times
449 1.0
twice
1.0
once
1.0

Surface Forms

three times positive

Morphology

three + times

The meaning ('by a factor of three' or 'on three occasions') is directly and compositionally derived from combining 'three' (the number) with 'times' (occurrences or multiplication). This is a very common, cross-linguistic construction with predictable semantics, so a B1 learner who knows both constituent words will readily understand the MWE.

Etymology

The expression three times comes from the simple idea of doing or counting something on three separate occasions or making a number three times bigger. Imagine making the same mark three times or writing '×3' next to a number—this shows 'repeat three times' or 'multiply by three', so the phrase means doing something three times or making it three times as large.