trifecta

Etymology

From tri- + (per)fecta.

noun

1. (US, Australia, New Zealand) A bet in which the bettor must select the first three placegetters of a race in the order in which they finish.
   The conservative player will play the exacta box bet and the occasional trifecta box wager. 2006, Vincent Conti, Thoroughbred Horse Racing Systems and Methodologies, page 9
   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. 2010, Leonard A. Asimow, Mark M. Maxwell, Probability and Statistics with Applications: A Problem Solving Text, page 10
2. (US, Australia, New Zealand) The attainment of three important achievements, qualities, etc.
3. (US, Australia, New Zealand, by extension) A set of three related things, often things that cause problems.
   Along with runtime errors, two other errors we saw earlier round out the JavaScript bug trifecta: syntax errors, logic errors, and runtime errors. 2007, Michael Morrison, Head First JavaScript, page 525
   2011, Beatriz Scaglia, The Trifecta of Evil and the Crisis of Faith: Devil, Satan, and Lucifer:
   2011, Markus Horner, Consistently Persistent: Living with the Tourette Trifecta:
   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. 27 November 2013, Emily Jane O'Dell, “Deep cover [print version: International Herald Tribune Magazine, 2013, p. 47]”, in The New York Times
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. The party that holds all three positions of power is said to have a trifecta.