sterne
\stɛʁn\
The verdict
“sterne” is uncommon French (frequency #57,615 among 6,032 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #57,615
- frequency rank, French
- 6,032
- “S” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Oiseau palmipède migrateur marin de la famille des laridés, communément appelé hirondelle de mer, à tête noire et à dos gris, qui vit sur les côtes ou près de l’eau.
Corpus desk
Index FR-sterne · sterne · French
sterne · rank #57,615 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #57,615
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,032
- PHOTO-FINISH steps
Nearest frequency peer: steps (-1 rank slots)
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Rangs de longue queue près de « sterne »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- staliniens
staliniens
42,389 corpus weight
- Starck
Starck
42,388 corpus weight
- steps
steps
42,387 corpus weight
- sterne
sterne
42,386 corpus weight
- sticks
sticks
42,385 corpus weight
- strand
strand
42,384 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « sterne » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | sterne |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \stɛʁn\ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #57,615 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « sterne » en français
Rare enough to double-check
sterne is uncommon French at frequency #57,615 among 6,032 “S” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \stɛʁn\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Oiseau palmipède migrateur marin de la famille des laridés, communément appelé hirondelle de mer, à tête noire et à dos gris, qui vit sur les côtes ou près de l’eau.".
Zero misspellings are on record for sterne in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is sterne, spelled S-T-E-R-N-E.
Definition
- 1Oiseau palmipède migrateur marin de la famille des laridés, communément appelé hirondelle de mer, à tête noire et à dos gris, qui vit sur les côtes ou près de l’eau.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how sterne appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Une grande sterne blanche passa au-dessus de la plate-forme en glapissant.
Un vol de sternes passe dans le ciel avec la grâce et l’étincelante blancheur d’une vague se soulevant et dont la crête déjà se courbe et se fragmente.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "sterne", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).