cerne

See also: cerné, černé, černě, and Cerne

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French [Term?], inherited from Latin circinus (“pair of compasses”); compare Romanian cearcăn.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sɛʁn/

• Audio (France (Toulouse)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

Noun

cerne m (plural cernes)

1. dark bluish coloration around the eyes, periorbital dark circle
2. dark circle around a lesion
3. tree ring

Usage notes

This noun is often incorrectly considered as feminine.

Related terms

• cerner

Verb

cerne

1. inflection of cerner:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

Further reading

• “cerne”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Anagrams

• encre, encré

Galician

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈθɛɾne̝/, (western) /ˈsɛɾne̝/

Noun

cerne m (plural cernes)

1. nonstandard form of cerna (“heartwood; core, kernel”)

Adjective

cerne m or f (plural cernes)

1. nonstandard form of cerno (“steady, firm, upright; hard”)

References

• Barreiro, Xavier Varela; Guinovart, Xavier Gómez (2006–2018), “cerne”, in Corpus Xelmírez: corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval [Corpus Xelmírez: linguistic corpus of Medieval Galicia] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Barreiro, Xavier Varela; Guinovart, Xavier Gómez (2006–2018), “cerne”, in Corpus Xelmírez: corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval [Corpus Xelmírez: linguistic corpus of Medieval Galicia] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “cerne”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega [Dictionary of Dictionaries of the Galician language] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “cerne”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega

Italian

Verb

cerne

1. third-person singular present indicative of cernere

Latin

Verb

cerne

1. second-person singular present active imperative of cernō

Portuguese

Etymology 1

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈsɛʁ.ni/ [ˈsɛɦ.ni]

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈsɛʁ.ni/ [ˈsɛɦ.ni]
  • (São Paulo) IPA^(key): /ˈsɛɾ.ni/
  • (Rio de Janeiro) IPA^(key): /ˈsɛʁ.ni/
  • (Caipira) IPA^(key): /ˈsɛɻ.ni/
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈsɛʁ.ne/ [ˈsɛɦ.ne]

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈsɛɾ.nɨ/

• Homophone: CERN
• Hyphenation: cer‧ne

Noun

cerne m (plural cernes)

1. heartwood (wood nearer the heart of a stem)

   Synonyms: durame, (dialectal) teio

2. kernel (core or essence of an object or system)
3. (figurative) main (the most important part of something)

Etymology 2

Verb

cerne

1. inflection of cernir:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

Further reading

• “cerne”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “cerne”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Romanian

Etymology

Inherited from Latin cernere, from Proto-Italic *krinō, from Proto-Indo-European *krey-.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃer.ne/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -erne
• Hyphenation: cer‧ne

Verb

a cerne (third-person singular present cerne, past participle cernut, third-person subjunctive cearnă) 3rd conjugation

1. to sift
2. to discern

   Synonym: distinge

3. to screen, sort

Conjugation

    conjugation of cerne (third conjugation, past participle in -ut)

infinitive			a cerne
gerund			cernând
past participle			cernut
number		singular			plural
person		1st person	2nd person	3rd person	1st person	2nd person	3rd person
indicative		eu	tu	el/ea	noi	voi	ei/ele
	present	cern	cerni	cerne	cernem	cerneți	cern
	imperfect	cerneam	cerneai	cernea	cerneam	cerneați	cerneau
	simple perfect	cernui	cernuși	cernu	cernurăm	cernurăți	cernură
	pluperfect	cernusem	cernuseși	cernuse	cernuserăm	cernuserăți	cernuseră
subjunctive		eu	tu	el/ea	noi	voi	ei/ele
	present	să cern	să cerni	să cearnă	să cernem	să cerneți	să cearnă
imperative		—	tu	—	—	voi	—
	affirmative		cerne			cerneți
	negative		nu cerne			nu cerneți

Derived terms

• cernător
• cernere
• cernut

Spanish

Etymology

Inherited from Latin circen.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈθeɾne/ [ˈθeɾ.ne] (Equatorial Guinea, Spain)
• IPA^(key): /ˈseɾne/ [ˈseɾ.ne] (Latin America, Philippines)
• Rhymes: -eɾne
• Syllabification: cer‧ne

Adjective

cerne m or f (masculine and feminine plural cernes)

1. hard (wood)

Further reading

• “cerne”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025