trike

C2+ Topic:Register & Style

US /traɪk/ UK /traɪk/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

noun
an informal name for a tricycle

She traded her trike for a proper bicycle on her sixth birthday.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · an informal name for a... tricyclethree-wheeler

Word family

Related forms tricycle bike

Simplified etymology

Trike appeared in the 1880s as an abbreviation of tricycle. Tricycle combines the idea of three with cycle, ultimately from Greek kuklos, “wheel.”

Etymology

A 20th-century informal shortening of tricycle (from Greek tri- 'three' + kyklos 'wheel'), formed by clipping on the model of bike from bicycle.

tri Latin kyklos Ancient Greek

View etymology graph ->

Topics

External links

# trike

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /traɪk/
**IPA (UK):** /traɪk/

## Meanings
1. an informal name for a tricycle

## Examples
- She traded her trike for a proper bicycle on her sixth birthday.

## Synonyms
- tricycle
- three-wheeler

## Related Forms
- tricycle
- bike

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: tri
- Root: kyklos

## Etymology
A 20th-century informal shortening of tricycle (from Greek tri- 'three' + kyklos 'wheel'), formed by clipping on the model of bike from bicycle.

## AI Etymology
Trike is a 20th-century informal shortening of tricycle (from Greek tri- 'three' + kyklos 'wheel'), formed by clipping on the model of bike from bicycle. Important recorded forms include tri (Ancient Greek) and kyklos (Ancient Greek). Morphologically, the word preserves a built structure whose named elements carry the historical sense into English. The modern sense continues the older lexical line without requiring a separate origin. In current use it covers an informal name for a tricycle. The wider family includes related words such as tricycle and bike.

## Topics
- Register & Style
- General Vocabulary

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