tern

UK: /tɜːn/ US: /tɝn/ ,(tûrn)

WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2025

tern¹ /tɜrn/   n. [countable]

1. Birds a web-footed water bird resembling a gull.

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025

tern¹  (tûrn), n. 

1. Birds 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, esp. those of the genus Sterna, as S. hirundo (common tern,) of Eurasia and America, having white, black, and gray plumage.

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

tern²  (tûrn), n. 

1. a set of three.
2. three winning numbers drawn together in a lottery.
3. a prize won by drawing these.

• Latin ternus, singular of ternī three each, triad, akin to ter thrice; see three
• Italian terno
• Middle French
• Middle English terne 1300–50

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::

tern / tɜːn/ noun

1. any aquatic bird of the subfamily Sterninae, having a forked tail, long narrow wings, a pointed bill, and a typically black-and-white plumage: family Laridae (gulls, etc), order Charadriiformes

Etymology: 18th Century: from Old Norse therna; related to Norwegian terna, Swedish tärna