{
  "id": "three.cardinal",
  "term": "three",
  "sense": "cardinal",
  "pos": "noun",
  "status": "review",
  "level": 4,
  "arena": "three",
  "domain": "common",
  "style": null,
  "definition": "a set that has two parts and also one more part",
  "folk_gloss": null,
  "emergence": {
    "components": [
      "sets.grouped",
      "part.relation"
    ],
    "interaction": "The set groups parts together, and adding one part to a pair creates a larger set.",
    "novel_properties": [
      "exact cardinal count",
      "minimal addition beyond pair"
    ]
  },
  "examples": [
    {
      "text": "A tripod stands stable on uneven ground because its three legs form a single rigid base.",
      "domain": "engineering"
    },
    {
      "text": "The 2020 U.S. Census counted exactly 52 House seats allocated to states with populations between three and four million.",
      "domain": "economics"
    },
    {
      "text": "In the 2017 French legislative election, three political parties won over 10% of the vote.",
      "domain": "institutions"
    }
  ],
  "relations": [],
  "used_by": [
    "four.cardinal",
    "six.cardinal",
    "thirty.numeral"
  ],
  "forms": [
    "three",
    "threes"
  ],
  "closed": true,
  "provenance": {
    "author": "openrouter:openai/gpt-oss-120b",
    "date": "2026-07-29",
    "confidence": 0.6
  },
  "canonical": "https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-three.cardinal"
}