terné

\tɛʁ.ne\

/\tɛʁ.ne\/ adj

The verdict

“terné” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency French
5
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Qui est au nombre de trois sur un support commun, en parlant des parties d'une plante.

Corpus desk

Index FR-terne · terné · French

terné · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "T" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

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.

Key facts for terné
PropertyValue
Headwordterné
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\tɛʁ.ne\
Letters5
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « terné » en français

ternén'entre pas dans le top 100.000 du français: zone de termes techniques, archaïques ou rares.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

terné is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective, transcribed \tɛʁ.ne\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Qui est au nombre de trois sur un support commun, en parlant des parties d'une plante.".

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for terné, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. Our dataset records no confusable match here, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct French form is terné, spelled T-E-R-N-É.

Definition

  1. 1
    Qui est au nombre de trois sur un support commun, en parlant des parties d'une plante.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how terné appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Sibbaldie, […]. Ce genre , qui est figuré pl. 221 des Illustrations de Lamarck, renferme des herbes à feuilles ternées, à folioles simples, dentées et découpées; à fleurs axillaires et terminales, quelquefois décagynes.
  2. La feuille est dite pennée quand on observe de chaque côté de la nervure moyenne un certain nombre de lobes ou de segments ; […]. La feuille sera ternée, biternée, triternée, lorsqu'elle offrira des lobes ou segments divisés ou subdivisés par trois (Épimédium, Actée).

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "terné"?
"terné" is spelled T-E-R-N-É. The IPA pronunciation is \tɛʁ.ne\.
What does "terné" mean?
As an adjective, "terné" means: Qui est au nombre de trois sur un support commun, en parlant des parties d'une plante.
How do you pronounce "terné"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "terné" is \tɛʁ.ne\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "terné" come from?
"terné" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list