Any of various seabirds of the subfamily Sternidae (of the family Laridae) that are similar to gulls but are smaller and have a forked tail.

(dated or obsolete) A thing with three components; a set of three things. / (gambling, dated) A lottery prize resulting from the favourable combination of three numbers in the draw.

(chiefly botany, rare) Consisting of three components; ternate, threefold, triple.

plural of terne

Obsolete spelling of tern (“any of various seabirds of the subfamily Sternidae (of the family Laridae) that are similar to gulls but are smaller and have a forked tail”)

plural of tern

Colourless, drab, dull.

(also attributively) An alloy coating made of lead and tin (or, more recently, zinc and tin), often with some antimony, used to cover iron or steel.

A small seabird (Chlidonias niger), of the tern family (Sternidae)

(Yorkshire, birdwatching) the roseate tern.