stem

Meaning

Noun

1. The stock of a family; a race or generation of progenitors.
2. A branch of a family.
3. A branch of a family.
4. An advanced or leading position; the lookout.
5. 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. 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.
7. A narrow part on certain man-made objects, such as a wine glass, a tobacco pipe, a spoon.
8. 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.
9. (slang) A person's leg.
10. (slang) The penis.
11. A vertical stroke of a letter.
12. A vertical stroke marking the length of a note in written music.
13. A premixed portion of a track for use in audio mastering and remixing.
14. The vertical or nearly vertical forward extension of the keel, to which the forward ends of the planks or strakes are attached.
15. (broadly) The front part of a vessel.
16. A component on a bicycle that connects the handlebars to the bicycle fork.
17. A part of an anatomic structure considered without its possible branches or ramifications.
18. (slang) A crack pipe; or the long, hollow portion of a similar pipe (i.e. meth pipe) resembling a crack pipe.
19. (British) A winder on a clock, watch, or similar mechanism.

Verb

1. To remove the stem from.
2. To be caused or derived; to originate.
3. To descend in a family line.
4. To direct the stem (of a ship) against; to make headway against.
5. (obsolete) To hit with the stem of a ship; to ram.
6. To ram (clay, etc.) into a blasting hole.

Verb

1. (transitive) To stop, hinder (for instance, a river or blood).
2. To move the feet apart and point the tips of the skis inward in order to slow down the speed or to facilitate a turn.
3. In rock climbing, to use a stance with the feet spread apart, bracing them in opposite directions against the two walls of a chimney or dihedral.

Opposite of

stern, aft, poop

Synonyms

stalk

trunk

shaft

root

stipe

derive

originate

arise

tree-trunk

base

bow

🙇

check

block

stock

staunch

shank

brake

halt

stanch

bar

prow

spring

body

radical

grow

axis

obstruct

tree trunk

leaf

tree

🌳

leg

🦵

stub

jam

inhibit

theme

root word

graft

fore

result

restrain

axle

repress

scape

dam

curb

bole

plant

🌱

hold back

accrue

peduncle

Translations

tige

Stiel

stengel

racine

gambo

radical

steel

stelo

tallo

stam

caule

Stamm

tronco

raíz

halm

Pronounced as (IPA)

/stɛm/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: stem

Inherited from Old English: stemn

Inherited from Middle English: stemmen

Cognate with Danish: stemme

Cognate with German: stemmen

Cognate with Middle Dutch: stemmen

In summary

From Middle English stem, stemme, stempne, stevin, from Old English stemn, from Proto-West Germanic *stamni, from Proto-Germanic *stamniz, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to stand, stay”).