tern
8
5.7
- noun
- /tɜrn/
:
gaviota
- The driver had just revved the motor when Joanne spotted a tern that was standing on something in the water.
- gulls and terns
- terns nest
- elegant terns
Examples
-
Red-winged Pranticole is no longer breeding there, and both Common Tern and Little Tern have disappeared.
Blog text (22) -
For example, least tern nests rose from 194 in 2007 to 1,048 in 2011.
Blog text (13) -
But the... the biggest journey of them all is of the arctic tern.
-
In it, I can see from far above, like an arctic tern gliding in the long August light.
Fiction book (2002) -
Not a soul on the beach unless she counted the terns and sandpipers.
Fiction book (1999) -
Theresa slowed to a walk and finally stopped as a Caspian tern circled overhead.
Fiction book (1999) -
Then there are the quirky little Inca terns that are so strikingly beautiful.
Blog text (18) -
I am struck by the continuing, increasing nighttime use of the beaches by shorebirds, gulls, and terns.
Academic text (1994) -
Numerous shorebirds and seabirds appear here, including red knots and various gulls and terns.
Academic text (2010) -
At dawn, the tern gracefully glided above the calm sea, searching for fish.
Synonyms
10
1.9
A bird that lives near the sea and often flies over water, like gulls or albatrosses
A group of sea birds called terns that live by the sea
A small sea bird with white, black, and grey feathers that dives to catch fish
How Big
Surface Forms
Etymology
The word tern comes from old English and Norse forms like terne, which people long ago used for the same sea bird. So tern still means the small, slim gull with a forked tail that dives for fish.