三元 [－－]

Jyutping saam1 jyun4
Pinyin sān yuán

Definitions (Wiktionary)
  1. noun, historical
    winning three stages in imperial examinations
  2. name
    Sanyuan Town (name of several towns and townships in China)
  3. name
    Sanyuan (a district of Sanming, Fujian, China)
  4. name
    Sanyuan (a village in Huilong, Hanchuan, Xiaogan, Hubei, China)

三元 [－－]

Jyutping
Pinyin sān yuán

Definitions (CC-CEDICT)
  1. (old) first place in civil service examinations at three levels: provincial 解元[jie4 yuan2], metropolitan 會元|会元[hui4 yuan2] and palace 狀元|状元[zhuang4 yuan2]
Examples (Tatoeba—Mandarin-English)
  1. Mandarin
    我用三元一打的价钱买了这些东西。
    我用三元一打的價錢買了這些東西。
    wǒ yòng sān yuán yī dá de jià qian mǎi le zhè xiē dōng xī 。
    • I buy the goods at $3 a dozen.
  2. Mandarin
    把三元色混合的话就会变成黑色
    把三元色混合的話就會變成黑色
    bǎ sān yuán sè hùn hé de huà jiù huì biàn chéng hēi sè
    • Mixture of the three primary colors creates black.
Examples (粵典–words.hk)
  1. Cantonese
    今晚7号仔状态大勇，已经连中三元喇，厉害厉害！
    今晚7號仔狀態大勇，已經連中三元喇，厲害厲害！
    • Tonight No.7 is so powerful, it's already his third scores, gorgeous !