noun

• (obsolete) A third.
• (religion, Roman Catholicism) Synonym of terce: the third canonical hour or its service.
• (now historical) A measure of capacity equal to a third of a pipe, or a cask or other vessel holding such a quantity; a cask larger than a barrel, and smaller than a hogshead or a puncheon, in which wine or salt provisions, rice, etc., are packed for shipment.
• (music) The third tone of the scale. See mediant.
• (card games) A sequence of three playing cards of the same suit. Tierce of ace, king and queen is called tierce-major.
• (fencing) The third defensive position, with the sword hand held at waist height, and the tip of the sword at head height.
• (heraldry) An ordinary that covers the left or right third of the field of a shield or flag.
• (obsolete) One sixtieth of a second, i.e., the third in a series of fractional parts in a sexagesimal number system. (Also known as a third.)
• A surname from French.