Gulls, or colloquially
seagulls, are seabirds of the family Laridae in the suborder Lari. They are most closely related to the terns and skimmers and distantly related to auks, and even more distantly to waders. Until the 21st century, most gulls were placed in the genus
Larus, but that arrangement is now considered polyphyletic, leading to the resurrection of several genera. An older name for gulls is
mews, which is cognate with German
Möwe, Danish
måge, Swedish
mås, Dutch
meeuw, Norwegian
måke/måse, and French
mouette, and can still be found in certain regional dialects.