Definition of "triliteral" []

• Consisting of three letters, especially of three consonants. Used chiefly of roots in Semitic languages. (adjective)
• A three-letter word or word element. (noun)
• A triliteral root or word. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Judging only by the spelling of the Hebrew name לכיש, I'd expect instead a Proto-Semitic triliteral *l-k-š/θ."
• "It looks like in Hellenosemitica (1965), Astour mentioned a Hittite rendering, Lakisi, together with a later Phoenician colony called Lixus (Λίξος) which, if valid, would suggest a predominantly Semitic use of the name as well as diminish my offhand triliteral alternative with theta."
• "So, it's not surprising that I managed to find a lead in one of Bomhard and Kern's books (see Bomhard/Kerns, The Nostratic Macrofamily (1994), p.386) which compares PIE *gʰrebʰ- "to scratch" with a list of Semitic data which suggest a triliteral skeleton *grb."