tern

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• Received-Pronunciation: tûrn
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• Received-Pronunciation: /tɜːn/
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• Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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• General-American: tûrn
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• General-American: /tɝn/
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• General-American: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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• homophone: turn
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• homophone: tarn
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• rhymes with -ɜː(ɹ)n
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• CMU ARPABET: T ER1 N Z Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
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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.

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.

68 source translations are retained for this English entry.

• Abkhaz: аԥсаатә (apsaatwʼ) — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• Arabic: خَرْشَنَة (ḵaršana) — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• Asturian: garrochín — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• Asturian: chirri — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• Asturian: carranclín — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• Bulgarian: морска лястовица (morska ljastovica) — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• Catalan: xatrac — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• Chinese Mandarin: 海鷗 /海鸥 (hǎi'ōu) — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• Czech: rybák — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• Danish: terne — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• Dutch: stern — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• Esperanto: ŝterno — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• Faroese: terna — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• Finnish: tiira — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• French: sterne — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• West-Frisian: stirns — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• Galician: carrán — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• Georgian: ტერნი (ṭerni) — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• Georgian: ⴒⴄⴐⴌⴈ (ṭerni) — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• German: Seeschwalbe — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• German: Meerschwalbe — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• Greek: στέρνα (stérna) — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• Ancient Greek: κήξ (kḗx) — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• Hungarian: csér — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• Icelandic: þerna — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• Ido: alcedo — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• Irish: geabhróg — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• Irish: scréachóg thrá — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• Italian: sterna — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• Japanese: アジサシ (ajisashi) — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• Kazakh: қырқылдақ (qyrqyldaq) — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• Korean: 제비갈매기 (jebigalmaegi) — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• Latin: larus — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• Latin: sterna — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• Manx: gant Arctagh — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• Manx: gant cadjin — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• Manx: gollan marrey — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• Mazanderani: اسپریک (esperik) — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• Mokilese: pares — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• Navajo: tónteel táshchozhii — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• Norman: daûtchet — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• Norwegian Bokmål: terne — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• Norwegian Nynorsk: terne — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• Polish: rybitwa — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• Portuguese: andorinha-do-mar — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• Portuguese: gaivina — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• Romanian: rândunică-de-mare — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• Russian: кра́чка (kráčka) — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• Scottish Gaelic: steàrnan — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• Scottish Gaelic: steàrnag — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• Scottish Gaelic: steàrnal — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• Serbo-Croatian: čȉgra — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• Serbo-Croatian: mòrska lȁstavica — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• Slovak: rybár — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• Slovene: čígra — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• Spanish: charrán — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• Spanish: fumarel — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• Spanish: gaviotín — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• Swedish: tärna — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• Tiwi: martapaka — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• Tiwi: wujirrini — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• Turkish: balıkçın — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• Turkish: deniz kırlangıcı — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• Ukrainian: кря́чок (krjáčok) — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• Volapük: melasval — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• Welsh: morwennol — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• Welsh: môr-wennol — bird of the subfamily Sternidae
• Wik-Mungkan: oopal — bird of the subfamily Sternidae