treble

Think of a choir: the bright, higher voices are singing the treble part. In music, treble usually refers to high notes or high-pitched sound, as in the treble clef on sheet music. But treble is not just for music. It can also mean to make something three times as much. If someone owes you $10 and you tell them to treble it, they owe you $30. You might say, "The cost of lumber has trebled in the last year," meaning it has become three times as high.

The word treble has a long history in music, but it also has a clear meaning in everyday counting and change. Its most familiar use is about high-pitched sound and musical notation. The treble clef, the curled symbol at the beginning of many lines of music, marks the range of higher notes. A treble voice is a high voice, often especially a boy's singing voice before it changes. You might also describe a sound, such as a bird's song, as light and treble in quality.

However, treble also works as a verb and adjective meaning threefold or to multiply by three. In this sense, "The company trebled its sales" means its sales became three times greater. This use is more common in British English, while American English often prefers triple. You may still see treble in news, business writing, and older texts.

So treble usually points in one of two directions: upward in sound or upward in amount. In one setting, it belongs to music and high notes; in another, it means that something becomes three times as much. The exact meaning is usually clear from the context.