any of various chiefly tropical marine gastropod molluscs of the genera Charonia, Cymatium, etc, having large beautifully-coloured spiral shells
Word origin
C16: via Latin from Greek tritōn
triton in British English2
(ˈtraɪtɒn)
noun
physics
a nucleus of an atom of tritium, containing two neutrons and one proton
Word origin
C20: from trit(ium) + -on
Triton in British English1
(ˈtraɪtən)
noun Greek mythology
1.
a sea god, son of Poseidon and Amphitrite, depicted as having the upper parts of a man with a fish's tail and holding a trumpet made from a conch shell
2.
one of a class of minor sea deities
Triton in British English2
(ˈtraɪtən)
noun
the largest satellite of the planet Neptune; discovered in 1846, it has a thin nitrogen atmosphere and a retrograde orbit; diameter: 2700 km
Triton in American English
(ˈtraɪtən)
noun
1. Greek Mythology
a sea god, son of Poseidon and Amphitrite, represented as having the head and upperbody of a man and the tail of a fish and as carrying a conch-shell trumpet
2. Greek Mythology
one of many attendants of the sea gods
3.
the largest of Neptune's eight satellites
4. [t-]
a.
any of a family (Cymatiidae) of large sea snails with a long, spiral shell, often brightly colored
b.
the shell
Word origin
L < Gr Tritōn; ? akin to OIr triath, sea
triton in American English
(ˈtraɪˌtɑn)
noun
the nucleus of the tritium atom containing one proton and two neutrons, used as aprojectile in nuclear reactions