# term vs tern

> English confusable word pair

## The two words

### term
*noun · IPA /tɜːm/ · frequency rank #600*
That which limits the extent of anything; limit, extremity, bound, boundary, terminus.

### tern
*noun · IPA /tɜːn/ · frequency rank #40,923*
Any of various seabirds of the subfamily Sterninae (of the family Laridae) that are similar to gulls but are smaller and have a forked tail.

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/vs/term-vs-tern