Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Unofficial championship title for a baseball player who leads the league in batting average, home runs, and runs batted in: Used exclusively in baseball to denote the highest single-season offensive achievement.
   • Of a horse that has won the Kentucky Derby, the Belmont Stakes, and the Preakness Stakes: Used exclusively in American thoroughbred horse racing to denote the winner of the three most prestigious annual races for three-year-olds.

Usage Examples

• Adjective (Baseball):

  • Miguel Cabrera achieved the rare triple-crown season in 2012.
  • Winning the triple-crown is one of the most difficult feats in baseball.

• Adjective (Horse Racing):

  • Justify is a triple-crown winner, having won all three races in 2018.
  • The farm breeds horses with the hope of producing a triple-crown champion.

Advanced Usage

• The term is almost always used attributively (before a noun) as a compound adjective, such as "triple-crown winner," "triple-crown season," or "triple-crown contender."
• It is a highly specific sports honorific; its use outside of baseball and horse racing is metaphorical, implying a similar dominance across three major areas in a field.

Variants and Related Words

• Triple Crown (Proper Noun): The official name of the achievement in both sports. The adjective form is typically hyphenated.
• Triple-crown winner (Noun Phrase): The athlete or horse that has achieved the feat.

Synonyms

• Baseball: There is no direct single-word synonym; it is described as "leading the league in the three major batting categories."
• Horse Racing: There is no direct single-word synonym; it is described as "winner of the U.S. Classic races."

Notes on Meaning

• The two meanings are entirely separate and belong to different sports lexicons. Context always makes it clear which sport is being discussed.
• The term is capitalized ("Triple Crown") when referring to the specific titles or events themselves but often appears in lower case and hyphenated when used as a descriptive adjective.

Adjective

1. unofficial championship title for player who heads the league in batting average and home runs and runs batted in
2. of a horse that has won the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont Stakes and the Preakness races