Triad
Three colours spaced evenly around the colour wheel, such as red, yellow and blue.
Also: triadic scheme
A triad takes three hues at equal distances on the wheel. Red, yellow and blue form one; orange, green and purple another. Triads are lively and balanced, since no colour is close to another. At full strength they can look childlike, which suits toys and some flags. Designers usually let one colour lead and use the other two more sparingly, or soften all three. Four evenly spaced colours form a tetrad, which is harder still to control.