AbstractIn this paper, we establish some sufficient conditions which ensure that the solutions of the third order delay difference equation with a negative middle term $$ \Delta \bigl(a_{n}\Delta (\Delta w_{n})^{\alpha } \bigr)-p_{n}(\Delta w_{n+1})^{ \alpha }-q_{n}h(w_{n-l})=0,\quad n\geq n_{0}, $$
Δ
(
a
n
Δ
(
Δ
w
n
)
α
)
−
p
n
(
Δ
w
n
+
1
)
α
−
q
n
h
(
w
n
−
l
)
=
0
,
n
≥
n
0
,
are oscillatory. Moreover, we study the asymptotic behavior of the nonoscillatory solutions. Two illustrative examples are included for illustration.