ternery

English

Etymology

From tern +‎ -ery.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /tɜːnəɹi/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /tɝnəɹi/
• Homophone: ternary

Noun

ternery (plural terneries)

1. A colony of terns.
   • 1888, John Alexander Harvie-Brown, Thomas Edward Buckley, A Vertebrate Fauna of the Outer Hebrides‎^[1], Edinburgh: David Douglas, page 140:

     Altogether Harvie-Brown has visited a great many Hebridean terneries, and paid special attention to their inhabitants.

   • 1991, John Hay, chapter 13, in The Bird of Light,‎^[2], New York and London: Norton, page 117:

     The reason dead fish are so often found in a ternery is that these are the ones that have proved to be too much for the chicks to swallow.

Anagrams

• re-entry, reentry, reëntry