tarn
/tɑɹn/noun
tarn is spelled T-A-R-N: 4 letters. It appears about once in every 3 million words in written English, the 47,073rd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data, counting Tarn, the name). As a noun, tarn means “A small mountain lake, especially in Northern England” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of tarn is tarns.
How many letters and syllables are in tarn?
| Letters | 4: T-A-R-N |
|---|---|
| In writing | about once in every 3 million words; the 47,073rd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is tarn?
Tarn appears about once in every 3 million words in written English, the 47,073rd most frequent word form in the list. The list counts every capitalisation together, so this includes Tarn, the name.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce tarn?
- UK /tɑːn/
- US /tɑɹn/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Wodencafe-tarn.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-tarn.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with tarn?
2 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as tarn from its last stressed vowel (/ɑɹn/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: rant, nart.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of tarn
- tarns plural
- tairn
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does tarn mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A small mountain lake, especially in Northern England.
- 2
USOne of many small mountain lakes or ponds.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Tarn in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense small mountain lake:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does tarn come from?
From Middle English terne, tarne (“lake; pond, pool”), from Old Norse tjǫrn (“a small lake without tributaries”), from Proto-Germanic *ternō (“water hole”), perhaps related to *turnaz (“bitter, embittered”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *der- (“to separate, split; to crack, shatter”). The word is cognate with Danish tjern, Faroese tjørn (“pond”), Icelandic tjörn (“pond”), Norwegian Bokmål tjern (“small forest or mountain lake”) (Norwegian Nynorsk tjern, tjørn), Swedish tjärn (“small forest lake”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).