Fork-tailed flier

The answer

TERN

4 letters. See every clue for this answer on the TERN answer page.

Used 16 times across 11 distinct years; most recently in 2023; first recorded in 1998. It appears in 10 publications in the xd corpus. Frequency and last-seen figures come from the xd crossword corpus only.

Other answers for this clue

The same clue has also been answered these ways in the xd corpus. Answers inside this collection link to their own answer page.

• KITE (3 uses in xd)

Other clues for TERN

Every other clue in this collection answered by TERN, most used first.

• Sea swallow - used 107 times, most recently in 2026
• Sea bird - used 74 times, most recently in 2014
• Beach bird - used 51 times, most recently in 2025
• Gull relative - used 51 times, most recently in 2026
• Gull's cousin - used 46 times, most recently in 2022
• Shore bird - used 37 times, most recently in 2025
• Gull cousin - used 26 times, most recently in 2025
• Seabird - used 23 times, most recently in 2026
• Coastal bird - used 20 times, most recently in 2026
• Shore flier - used 20 times, most recently in 2026
• Aquatic bird - used 19 times, most recently in 2025
• Small seabird - used 19 times, most recently in 2026
• Fork-tailed seabird - used 18 times, most recently in 2022
• Gull-like bird - used 16 times, most recently in 2023
• Fork-tailed bird - used 15 times, most recently in 2025
• Arctic bird - used 14 times, most recently in 2026
• Gull kin - used 13 times, most recently in 2008
• Marine bird - used 12 times, most recently in 2022
• Cousin of a gull - used 10 times, most recently in 2025
• Arctic seabird - used 9 times, most recently in 2026
• Ocean bird - used 9 times, most recently in 2024
• Relative of a gull - used 9 times, most recently in 2025
• Seabird with a forked tail - used 9 times, most recently in 2025
• Set of three - used 9 times, most recently in 1998
• Gull's relative - used 8 times, most recently in 2026
• Fork-tailed shore bird - used 7 times, most recently in 2012
• Graceful seabird - used 7 times, most recently in 2014
• Gull. - used 7 times, most recently in 2006
• Bird on a beach - used 6 times, most recently in 2022
• Fork-tailed shorebird - used 6 times, most recently in 2020
• Graceful aquatic bird - used 6 times, most recently in 2008
• Migratory bird - used 6 times, most recently in 2024
• Seagull cousin - used 6 times, most recently in 2025
• Seagull kin - used 6 times, most recently in 2022

Related clues

Clues in this collection of the same answer length that share a word with this clue, or match its answer pattern when no word is shared. Most used first.

• Fork prong - TINE, used 126 times
• Fork part - TINE, used 123 times
• Fork feature - TINE, used 72 times
• White-tailed eagle - ERNE, used 42 times
• Pesky flier - GNAT, used 33 times
• Sea flier - ERNE, used 28 times

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