Meaning of 'stem' (Webster Dictionary)
- Alt. of Steem
- The principal body of a tree, shrub, or plant, of any kind;
the main stock; the part which supports the branches or the head or
top.
- A little branch which connects a fruit, flower, or leaf with
a main branch; a peduncle, pedicel, or petiole; as, the stem of an
apple or a cherry.
- The stock of a family; a race or generation of progenitors.
- A branch of a family.
- A curved piece of timber to which the two sides of a ship are
united at the fore end. The lower end of it is scarfed to the keel, and
the bowsprit rests upon its upper end. Hence, the forward part of a
vessel; the bow.
- Fig.: An advanced or leading position; the lookout.
- Anything resembling a stem or stalk; as, the stem of a
tobacco pipe; the stem of a watch case, or that part to which the ring,
by which it is suspended, is attached.
- That part of a plant which bears leaves, or rudiments of
leaves, whether rising above ground or wholly subterranean.
- The entire central axis of a feather.
- The basal portion of the body of one of the Pennatulacea, or
of a gorgonian.
- The short perpendicular line added to the body of a note; the
tail of a crotchet, quaver, semiquaver, etc.
- The part of an inflected word which remains unchanged (except
by euphonic variations) throughout a given inflection; theme; base.
- Alt. of Steem
- To move forward against an obstacle, as a vessel against a
current.
- To remove the stem or stems from; as, to stem cherries; to
remove the stem and its appendages (ribs and veins) from; as, to stem
tobacco leaves.
- To ram, as clay, into a blasting hole.
- To oppose or cut with, or as with, the stem of a vessel;
to resist, or make progress against; to stop or check the flow of, as a
current.
Meaning of 'stem' (Princeton's WordNet)
Meaning (1):
- front part of a vessel or aircraft
Example in sentence:- he pointed the bow of the boat toward the finish line
Meaning (2):
- (linguistics) the form of a word after all affixes are removed
Example in sentence:- thematic vowels are part of the stem
Meaning (3):
- remove the stem from
Example in sentence:- for automatic natural language processing, the words must be stemmed
Meaning (4):
- stop the flow of a liquid
Example in sentence:- staunch the blood flow;
- stem the tide
Meaning (5):
- cause to point inward
Meaning (6):
- grow out of, have roots in, originate in
Example in sentence:- The increase in the national debt stems from the last war
Definition
[ n.]