Word
tern
US/ˈtɝnz/
UK/tˈɜːn/
Definition
n. a type of sea bird with long wings and a pointed tail. You often see them flying near the ocean or on the coast.
n. any of various seabirds of the family Laridae, characterized by long, narrow wings and a deeply forked tail. Often distinguished from gulls by their more streamlined body and more agile flight.
Examples
“A tern flew low over the water to catch a fish.”
“The tern nested on the sandy beach, building a shallow scrape in the sand to protect its eggs from the tide.”
“While many gulls are found in urban environments, the tern is a more specialized seabird that typically breeds in colonies on coastal islands or sandbars to avoid terrestrial predators.”
Examples
simple
“A tern flew low over the water to catch a fish.”
contextual
“The tern nested on the sandy beach, building a shallow scrape in the sand to protect its eggs from the tide.”
complex
“While many gulls are found in urban environments, the tern is a more specialized seabird that typically breeds in colonies on coastal islands or sandbars to avoid terrestrial predators.”
Real-World Examples
“The state government said the animals, along with three dead crested terns, were spotted at the Port of Grassy on King Island on Wednesday.” “On Saturday, the NSW government also confirmed the fifth detected case in the state, in a tern found at Eden on the far south coast.” Etymology
Via an East Anglian dialect, from some Scandinavian (North Germanic) language, related to Danish terne, Norwegian terne, and Swedish tärna, all from Old Norse þerna (“tern; maidservant”), ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *þewernā (“handmaid, young girl”). First attested in the 1670s.
PIE word *tréyes The noun is derived from Late Middle English terne (“throw of a die or dice showing the number three”), from Old French terne (“gathering of three people; trinity”) (modern French terne), from Latin ternās, the accusative feminine plural of ternī (“three each; three at a time”), from ter (“thrice”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *tréyes (“three”)) + -ī (from -us (suffix forming adjectives)). The adjective is either derived from the noun, or directly from Latin ternī (“three each; three at a time”); see above.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Domain
Scan code
englishreference.com/q/tern