Definitions for terns

• Definition
• Anagrams (62)

terns tern

Spelling: [turn]

IPA: /tɜrn/

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

You can make 62 anagrams from letters in terns (enrst).

Definitions for terns

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 terns

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

Examples for terns

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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