The third declension is a category of in Latin and Ancient Greek with broadly similar grammatical case formation — diverse word stem, but similar suffix. Sanskrit also has a corresponding class (although not commonly termed as third), in which the so-called basic case endings are applied very regularly.
In contrast with the first declension and second-declension endings, those of the third declension lack a thematic stem vowel (a or o/u in the first and second declensions) and so are called athematic stem.
One distinguishing feature of third-declension nouns is a genitive case singular ending of a short vowel and s: Latin rēg-is "of a king" Greek χειρ-ός ( cheir-ós) "of a hand", and Sanskrit bhagavat-as "of the blessed (one)". Another is a dative case singular ending of i (short i in Greek, long ī in Latin): rēg-ī "for a king"; χειρ-ί ( cheir-í) "for, with the hand". This corresponds to an -e ending in Sanskrit, which might have been a contracted ai or lengthened i: bhagavat-e "for the blessed (one)"
Many third-declension nouns, unlike first- or second-declension nouns, show different stems depending on case and number — usually one stem for the nominative case singular, and another for the rest of the cases, though some Greek nouns have three stems. Greek stems are often formed by ablaut: Latin "person" and homin-ēs "people"; Greek ( patēr’) "father", πατρ-ός ( patr-ós) "of a father", and πατέρ-ες ( patér-es), "fathers". In Sanskrit the situation is similar to that in Greek, but the strongest stem is used somewhat more.
A subcategory within both the Latin and Greek third declension is nouns with consonant stems. These, unlike all first- and second-declension nouns, end in a consonant. Often the consonant at the beginning of certain endings undergoes a sound change with the consonant of the stem: Latin rēx "king", from rēg-s (compare the earlier-mentioned rēgis); ( poús) "foot", and Attic dative plural ποσί ( posí) "on foot" from πόδ-ς ( pód-s) and ποδ-σί ( pod-sí). These changes are subject to sandhi in Sanskrit.
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