Tern vs Stern - What's the difference?
tern | stern |
Any of various sea birds of the family Sternidae that are similar to gulls but are smaller and have a forked tail.
That which consists of, or pertains to, three things or numbers together.
(dated) A lottery prize resulting from the favourable combination of three numbers in the draw.
* Mrs Browning
threefold; triple; consisting of three; ternate
Having a hardness and severity of nature or manner.
* (John Dryden)
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-22, volume=407, issue=8841, page=76, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= Grim and forbidding in appearance.
* (William Wordsworth)
(nautical) The rear part or after end of a ship or vessel.
* , chapter=7
, title= (figurative) The post of management or direction.
* (William Shakespeare)
The hinder part of anything.
The tail of an animal; now used only of the tail of a dog.
(l) (luminous dot appearing in the night sky)
As nouns the difference between tern and stern
is that tern is any of various sea birds of the family Sternidae that are similar to gulls but are smaller and have a forked tail while stern is the rear part or after end of a ship or vessel.As adjectives the difference between tern and stern
is that tern is threefold; triple; consisting of three; ternate while stern is having a hardness and severity of nature or manner.tern
English
Etymology 1
From a Scandinavian language, related to Danish terne'', Swedish '' , ultimately from (etyl)Noun
(en noun)Derived terms
* arctic tern * black tern * common tern * crested tern * greater crested tern * hooded tern * lesser crested tern * marsh tern * river tern * roseate tern * sooty tern * swift ternSee also
* sea swallow * (wikipedia) * (Sternidae) * (Sternidae)Etymology 2
(etyl) terne. See (tern) (adjective).Noun
(en noun)- She'd win a tern in Thursday's lottery.
Adjective
(-)- tern''' flowers; '''tern leaves
- a tern schooner, one with three masts
Anagrams
* *stern
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) stern, sterne, sturne, from (etyl) .Adjective
(er)- stern as tutors, and as uncles hard
Snakes and ladders, passage=Risk is everywhere. From tabloid headlines insisting that coffee causes cancer (yesterday, of course, it cured it) to stern government warnings about alcohol and driving, the world is teeming with goblins.}}
- these barren rocks, your stern inheritance
Etymology 2
Most likely from (etyl) , from the same Germanic root.Noun
(wikipedia stern) (en noun)Mr. Pratt's Patients, passage=Old Applegate, in the stern', just set and looked at me, and Lord James, amidship, waved both arms and kept hollering for help. I took a couple of everlasting big strokes and managed to grab hold of the skiff's rail, close to the ' stern .}}
- and sit chiefest stern of public weal
- (Spenser)
