tern vs three

tern

noun
  • A thing with three components; a set of three things. 

  • Any of various seabirds of the subfamily Sternidae (of the family Laridae) that are similar to gulls but are smaller and have a forked tail. 

adj
  • Consisting of three components; ternate, threefold, triple. 

three

noun
  • The digit/figure 3. 

  • Anything measuring three units, as length. 

  • Three o'clock, either a.m. or p.m. 

  • A person who is three years old. 

  • The playing card featuring three pips. 

num
  • A numerical value after two and before four. Represented in Arabic digits as 3; this many dots (•••). 

  • Describing a set or group with three elements. 

How often have the words tern and three occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )