Three Way Merge
In plain terms
Merging using two branch tips and their common ancestor.
Going deeper
A three-way merge combines changes by comparing both branches against their shared ancestor, intelligently integrating non-conflicting edits. It uses three reference points.
Under the hood
Smarter than a two-way diff; the common ancestor lets Git auto-merge most changes.
Examples
git merge, branch integration, conflict resolution, merge commits.
Think of it like...
Like reconciling two edited copies by referring back to the original they both started from.