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tetrad

/ˌtɛˈtræd/
IPA guide

Other forms: tetrads

A tetrad is a group of four things. If you've ordered four pizzas for dinner, you can announce that you are serving a tetrad of pizzas.

You can use the noun tetrad to talk about a set of four numbers in math, or a group of four things in various branches of science — one kind of tetrad is a group of four spores in one specific type of yeast. It's more common in non-scientific speech to say quartet or quadruplet. Tetrad comes from a Greek root, the word tetras, "group of four," from tetra, or "four."

Definitions of tetrad
  1. noun
    the cardinal number that is the sum of three and one
    see moresee less
    type of:
    digit, figure
    one of the elements that collectively form a system of numeration
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