triptych

noun triptychs · triptich

1. A picture or series of pictures painted on three tablets connected by hinges. I never thought breastfeeding would be hard. When I thought about it at all, my mind conjured beatific scenes suffused with a sort of religious glow. […] These days I envisage more of a triptych: the infant Jesus spluttering at the breast, face purple with hangry fury; the infant Jesus possetting mi
2. broadly A group of three people or works, especially when considered representative of a particular field or theme. Thus, with the passing years, Papa Wemba, a hardworking and introverted man, has come to embody “African pop,” forming a triptych with Youssou N’Dour and Salif Keita.
3. broadly A film or video sequence intended to be shown on a triple screen with the use of linked projectors. The centerpiece of the show is a poised, luminous, tender, and diabolically clever video installation, “Le Triptyque de Noirmoutier” (The Noirmoutier Triptych), which Varda shot on 35-mm. film[…]. The man gets himself a bottle of beer; the older woman heads with dishes from the sink toward the cupbo
4. broadly A set of three se-tenant postage stamps that form a composite picture.
5. figuratively Any set of three closely connected ideas or objects. Witchcraft, heresy, and counterfeiting formed a triptych in popular imagination and in the law.