three fingers up
2 synonyms for three fingers up, grouped by meaning and by how common each one is.
Noun phrase — A hand gesture in which three fingers are raised, used online and in photographs with a range of meanings depending on context, most commonly as a salute of solidarity and resistance, as a sign for the number three, or as a gang or crew signal.
Synonyms
Rare, literary or technical
Precise, but they will stand out — check the sense before using one.
three-finger salute
three up
How to use three fingers up
The word patterns that sound natural to a native speaker.
three fingers up
three-finger salute
throw three fingers up
Informal. Because the meaning shifts so much by setting, spell out what you mean in writing rather than relying on the phrase alone.
Frequently asked questions
What does three fingers up mean in a photo?
There is no single answer, which is why it is so often misread. It can be a solidarity salute, a signal of a group or set number, a Scout sign, or simply the number three. Judge it by who is doing it and where — the same gesture means different things in a protest crowd, a Scout troop and a rap video.
Where does the three-finger salute in protests come from?
It was taken from the Hunger Games films, where it is a silent sign of respect and dissent, and adopted by pro-democracy demonstrators in Thailand from 2014 onward and later in Myanmar after the 2021 coup. Authorities in both countries treated raising it in public as an act of defiance.
Is three fingers up a gang sign?
It can be, in some contexts, since many crews and sets use numeric hand signs. But the gesture is used far more often for entirely unrelated reasons, so treating every raised three fingers as a gang signal is unreliable.
