trilogy

noun tril·o·gy \ ˈtri-lə-jē \

|Updated on: 14 Jun 2018

Definition of trilogy

plural trilogies

: a series of three dramas or literary works or sometimes three musical compositions that are closely related and develop a single theme

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Examples of trilogy in a Sentence

the last book in the trilogy

Recent Examples of trilogy from the Web

After rereading James Farrell's Studs Lonigan trilogy recently, McNaughton was struck by how history keeps recurring.

— dmitry samarov, Chicago Reader, "Roseland's transformation captured in 1970 student film," 5 June 2018
Back in the original trilogy days, there were three years between Skywalker saga episodes, and 16 years between Return of the Jedi and the first prequel The Phantom Menace.

— brian truitt, USA TODAY, "Even 'Star Wars' can flop: 5 lessons learned from 'Solo's lackluster reception," 3 June 2018
The Lucasfilm Story Group's boffins are tying together the franchise's two main trilogies, doubling down on what many thought to be beyond salvaging.

— brendan nystedt, WIRED, "Solo: A Star Wars Story," 29 May 2018
The band decided to go about releasing them in a segmented, trilogy-like way to stretch new music throughout the year.

— anne nickoloff, cleveland.com, "Cleveland indie-rock band The Mason District premieres new song 'Earth To Lucy'," 2 May 2018
Same for any Sony Pictures films, particularly the Tobey Maguire trilogy of Spider-man films.

— sam machkovech, Ars Technica, "Drool over Marvel Comics’ rarest original art, costumes at new museum exhibit," 21 Apr. 2018
Both Sean and Mackenzie are actors, with Sean best known for his movie roles in The Goonies, Rudy, and The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and Mackenzie for his roles in the TV series The Facts of Life and in the movies In Love and War and Iron Will.

— samantha drake, Country Living, "How Patty Duke's Undiagnosed Mental Illness Wreaked Havoc on Her Love Life," 24 May 2017
Between R2-D2’s chipper adventuresomeness and C-3PO’s dweeby detail obsession was found the ethos of the original trilogy.

— spencer kornhaber, The Atlantic, "The Soul of Solo Is a Droid," 27 May 2018
And that’s especially true for a prequel Solo: A Star Wars Story, which builds on the audience’s knowledge of Han Solo, and lays the groundwork for some of the events of the original trilogy.

— scott meslow, GQ, "Solo: A Star Wars Story: Everything You Might Have Missed," 26 May 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'trilogy.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Did You Know?

Dozens of tragic trilogies were written for the Greek stage, though only one, Aeschylus's great Oresteia (consisting of Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, *and *The Eumenides), has survived complete. Authors in later years have occasionally chosen to create trilogies to allow themselves to develop a highly complex story or cover a long span of time. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings wasn't actually intended as a trilogy, but since it was published in three volumes it's usually called one. George Lucas's three original Star Wars movies are an example of a film trilogy (which he followed many years later by another).