Alternative (short) way of saying “a three-pronged approach to X”

Question

I rather like this construct, as exemplified by “a three-pronged approach to physical therapy” (or four-pronged, or whatever). However, I tend to use it too much, and I am wondering how I could replace it by other short constructs with the same meaning. So, I wonder:

• Does “a three-fold approach to…” have the same meaning? I think it does, as my dictionary says of the -fold suffix: “consisting of so many parts or facets”.
• Do you know other ways to express this in only two or three words? It being a short adjectival phrase is useful to me.

Answer 1

How about "tripartite"? There is also "bipartite" for two, but it doesn't generalize to higher numbers.

Answer 2

You could say a multi-pronged approach.

The -fold suffix is reliable. See my answer to a different question.

You could also refer to different fronts:

We'll approach the therapy on three fronts.

This comes from military terminology (as does pronged, I believe). You can also use these words with attack as the verb.

Or you could simply use parts:

We took a three-part approach to the patient's therapy.

And finally there is facet.

We took a multi-faceted approach to the patient's therapy.

Answer 3

I suggest "trident" (2 distinct syllables). As an adjective, "tri-dent" (meaning "three toothed" or "three pronged") gives the exact meaning you want in a very compact form: "His trident approach to the problem proved very effective".