trifecta

1. (gambling) A bet in which the bettor must select the first three placegetters of a race in the order in which they finish.Examples: "The conservative player will play the exacta box bet and the occasional trifecta box wager."; "In a trifecta, you must wager on three horses: the one that finishes first (win), the one that finishes second (place), and the one that finishes third (show) in order."AustraliaNew-ZealandUS

2. (figurative) The attainment of three important achievements, qualities, etc.Examples: "The money picture for Santorum could change after his trifecta win in Colorado, Minnesota, and Missouri Tuesday night."; "At the same time, he said, it could be that Mr. Netanyahu is “seeking a trifecta” with the strikes on Monday: pushing Hamas to give in, showing the Israeli public that he did hit Rafah as promised and getting credit from the Biden administration for not mounting the full-scale assault that Washington fears would result in a civilian catastrophe."AustraliaNew-ZealandUSfiguratively

3. (by extension) A set of three related things, often things that cause problems.Examples: "Along with runtime errors, two other errors we saw earlier round out the JavaScript bug trifecta: syntax errors, logic errors, and runtime errors."; "I might never have learned my name or met my birth family if I hadn't ended up in the hospital in Rhode Island in 2007, after traveling to a trifecta of malaria hotspots: Mali, Egypt and Colombia."; "And the Amy Schumer, Wanda Sykes, and Regina Hall trifecta stumbled through inconsistent chemistry as they, too, attempted to insult their peers."AustraliaNew-ZealandUSbroadly

4. (US politics) The complete legislative and executive control of state or federal government by one party: governorship, the upper house, and the lower house of state or federal legislatures.Examples: "In fact, there are about a dozen states, including California, Massachusetts, Washington, and Illinois, where Democrats have won the trifecta—they control the governor's seat as well as both houses of the state legislature."; "It’s not just Florida, of course. Republican trifectas in states across the country have introduced and passed dozens of bills aimed at the public existence of trans and other gender-nonconforming people."AustraliaNew-ZealandUS