ménage à trois

or menage a trois

[ mey-nahzh ah trwah; French mey-nazh a trwah ]

noun

, plural mé·na·ges à trois [mey-, nah, -zhiz ah , trwah].

1. a domestic arrangement in which three people, usually a heterosexual couple and one other person, are engaged in a sexual or romantic relationship and occupy the same household.
2. threesome ( def 4 ).

ménage à trois

/ menaʒ a trwɑ /

noun

1. a sexual arrangement involving a married couple and the lover of one of them

Word History and Origins

Origin of ménage à trois¹

First recorded in 1860–65; from French: “household of three”

Word History and Origins

Origin of ménage à trois¹

literally: household of three

Example Sentences

The story continues at a motel, where Zendaya, playing a tennis prodigy, begins a ménage à trois with two guys; it fizzles after they become more interested in each other.

From New York Times

While it might seem like the relationship between Fox News and the former president is definitionally codependent—an inescapable chokehold of paranoid delusion that brings out the worst in each party—I would submit that it is actually more of a ménage à trois.

From Slate

In one of the disputes that led to Crosby leaving the Byrds, the band recorded his taboo-testing song about a ménage a trois — “Why can’t we go on as three?” it asked — but refused to include it on “The Notorious Byrd Brothers,” an album that marked the Byrds’ turn toward country-rock.

From New York Times

So Férida went to Hollywood in 1940, and on her way met a married couple she began a ménage à trois with.

From New York Times

She cooks up a ménage a trois for Monroe and channels her ostensible thoughts, including during a lurid tryst with an unkind President John F. Kennedy.

From New York Times

Related Words

• love affair
• threesome