Meaning of stem in English

  1. Pronunciation

    /stɛm/

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  1. Verb

    stem

    Etymology

    Middle English (in the sense ‘to stop, delay’): from Old Norse stemma, of Germanic origin. The skiing term (early 20th century) is from the German verb stemmen

    Definitions

    1. grow out of, have roots in, originate in

    Examples

    • « The increase in the national debt stems from the last war »
  2. 2. cause to point inward

    Examples

    • « stem your skis »
  3. 3. stop the flow of a liquid

    Examples

    • « staunch the blood flow »
    • « them the tide »
  4. 4. remove the stem from

    Examples

    • « for automatic natural language processing, the words must be stemmed »

  5. Noun

    stem

    Etymology

    Old English stemn, stefn, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch stam and German Stamm. stem (sense 4 of the noun) is related to Dutch steven, German Steven

    Definitions

    1. (linguistics) the form of a word after all affixes are removed

    Examples

    • « thematic vowels are part of the stem »
  6. 2. a slender or elongated structure that supports a plant or fungus or a plant part or plant organ
  7. 3. cylinder forming a long narrow part of something
  8. 4. the tube of a tobacco pipe
  9. 5. front part of a vessel or aircraft

    Examples

    • « he pointed the bow of the boat toward the finish line »
  10. 6. a turn made in skiing

    Examples

    • « the back of one ski is forced outward and the other ski is brought parallel to it »