Definitions for tern

• Definition
• Anagrams (27)

tern tern

Spelling: [turn]

IPA: /tɜrn/

Tern is a 4 letter English word. It's valid Scrabble word worth 4 points. It's valid Words with friends word worth 5 points.

You can make 27 anagrams from letters in tern (enrt).

Definitions for tern

noun

1. any of numerous aquatic birds of the subfamily Sterninae of the family Laridae, related to the gulls but usually having a more slender body and bill, smaller feet, a long, deeply forked tail, and a more graceful flight, especially those of the genus Sterna, as S. hirundo (common tern) of Eurasia and America, having white, black, and gray plumage.
2. a set of three.
3. three winning numbers drawn together in a lottery.
4. a prize won by drawing these.

Origin of tern

1670-80; Danish terne or Norwegian terna; cognate with Old Norse therna

Examples for tern

The tern is called by the islanders the "pilot of Keeling Cocos."

A name on our northern coasts for the Sterna hirundo, the tern, or sea-swallow.

The first tern expresses his Devotion to his love's service.

As regards pace on the wing the kingfisher is no match for the tern.

This tern is seldom or never seen at any distance from the sea.

The tern are far away, and so, thank Heaven, are the mosquitoes.

The tern, a bird resembling the gull, but more slender and swift.

He had not risen a yard above the water when the tern noticed that he had quarry.

The bird which produces the guano is a sort of tern, with red bill and legs.

Many miles of coast may be traversed without one ever seeing a tern.