Stem

Quick meaning: Stem is a noun meaning The stock of a family; a race or generation of progenitors.

Meaning

The stock of a family; a race or generation of progenitors.

More Meanings

1. A branch of a family.
2. An advanced or leading position; the lookout.
3. A slender supporting member of an individual part of a plant such as a flower or a leaf; also, by analogy, the shaft of a feather.
4. A narrow part on certain man-made objects, such as a wine glass, a tobacco pipe, a spoon.
5. (botany) The above-ground stalk (technically axis) of a vascular plant, and certain anatomically similar, below-ground organs such as rhizomes, bulbs, tubers, and corms.
6. (linguistics) The main part of an uninflected word to which affixes may be added to form inflections of the word. A stem often has a more fundamental root. Systematic conjugations and declensions derive from their stems.
7. (slang) A person's leg.

Example Sentences

the stem of an apple or a cherry

This is a stem / Of that victorious stock.

Wolsey sat at the stem more than twenty years.

While I do pray, learn here thy stem / And true descent.

Word Forms

• stems
• stemming
• stemmed

Synonyms for stem

Depending on context, synonyms include tail, virgula, bow, fore, forestem, prow.

Antonyms for stem

Common opposites include stern, aft, poop.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include radical, staunch, base, theme, fore, stanch.

Related Dictionary Tools