• enPR: stĕm, IPA: /stɛm/

stem (plural stems)

1. The stock of a family; a race or generation of progenitors.
   • 1634, John Milton, “Arcades”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […] , London: Printed by Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Moſely,  […], published 1645, OCLC 606951673 ↗, page 55 ↗:

     Where ye may all that are of noble ſtemm / Approach, and kiſs her ſacred veſtures hemm.

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

2. A branch of a family.
   • 1599, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act II, scene iv]:

     This is a stem / Of that victorious stock.

3. An advanced or leading position; the lookout.

   • Wolsey sat at the stem more than twenty years.

4. (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.
   • 1736, Sir Walter Raleigh, The History of the World in Five Books

     After they are shot up thirty feet in length, they spread a very large top, having no bough nor twig in the trunk or the stem.

5. 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.

   the stem of an apple or a cherry

6. A narrow part on certain man-made objects, such as a wine glass, a tobacco pipe, a spoon.
7. (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.
8. (slang) A person's leg.
   • 2008, Lori Wilde, ‎Rhonda Nelson, ‎Cara Summers, August Harlequin Blaze

     She was perfectly, fuckably proportioned everywhere else, both above and below her waist. A pocket-size Venus, with the longest stems he'd ever seen on someone so dang diminutive.

9. (slang) The penis.
10. (typography) A vertical stroke of a letter.
11. (music) A vertical stroke marking the length of a note in written music.
12. (music) A premixed portion of a track for use in audio mastering and remixing.
13. (nautical) The vertical or nearly vertical forward extension of the keel, to which the forward ends of the planks or strakes are attached.
14. A component on a bicycle that connects the handlebars to the bicycle fork
15. (anatomy) A part of an anatomic structure considered without its possible branches or ramifications.
16. (slang) A crack pipe; or the long, hollow portion of a similar pipe (i.e. meth pipe) resembling a crack pipe.
17. (chiefly British) A winder on a clock, watch, or similar mechanism

• (music) tail; virgula (obsolete)

• German: Geschlecht, Stamm, Herkunft
• Italian: ceppo, ramo, linea di discendenza, linea
• Portuguese: ramo

• German: Zweig, Seitenlinie
• Italian: ceppo, ramo, linea

• Italian: vertice

• French: tige
• German: Stamm, Sprossachse
• Italian: ceppo, fusto, tronco, gambo
• Portuguese: caule
• Russian: ствол
• Spanish: tallo

• German: Stängel, Stiel, Halm, Strunk
• Italian: gambo, picciolo, peduncolo, stelo
• Portuguese: haste
• Russian: черено́к

• German: Stiel, Holm
• Italian: gambo, stelo
• Russian: сте́ржень

• French: racine, radical
• German: Wortstamm, Stamm
• Italian: tema, radice
• Portuguese: raiz
• Russian: осно́ва
• Spanish: raíz

• Russian: но́жка

• German: Notenhals
• Italian: asta, gamba

• French: étrave
• German: Vordersteven, Vorsteven, Steven
• Italian: ruota di prua, dritto di prua, tagliamare
• Portuguese: talha-mar
• Russian: нос
• Spanish: roda

• French: potence
• German: Vorbau

stem (stems, present participle stemming; past and past participle stemmed)

1. To remove the stem from.

   to stem cherries; to stem tobacco leaves

2. To be caused or derived; to originate.

   The current crisis stems from the short-sighted politics of the previous government.

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.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.ii:

     As when two warlike Brigandines at sea, / With murdrous weapons arm'd to cruell fight, / Doe meete together on the watry lea, / They stemme ech other with so fell despight, / That with the shocke of their owne heedlesse might, / Their wooden ribs are shaken nigh a sonder […]

6. To ram (clay, etc.) into a blasting hole.

• (to originate) to be due to, to arise from

• French: équeuter
• German: entstielen
• Russian: отделя́ть

• French: résulter, découler
• German: kommen, herrühren, sich begründen auf, seine Ursache haben in, verursacht werden
• Italian: derivare
• Portuguese: derivar, originar
• Russian: происходи́ть
• Spanish: arrancar, venir, proceder, dimanar (formal)

• French: provenir
• German: stammen, abstammen, herstammen
• Italian: discendere
• Portuguese: descender
• Russian: происходи́ть
• Spanish: descender

stem (stems, present participle stemming; past and past participle stemmed)

1. (transitive) To stop, hinder (for instance, a river or blood).

   to stem a tide

   • [They] stem the flood with their erected breasts.

   • 1709, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Criticism, London: Printed for W. Lewis […], published 1711, OCLC 15810849 ↗:

     Stemm'd the wild torrent of a barbarous age.

2. (skiing) 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.

• See also Thesaurus:hinder

• French: arrêter
• German: aufhalten, hemmen, entgegenstemmen, eindämmen, stillen, gegen etwas ankämpfen
• Italian: arrestare, tamponare
• Portuguese: parar
• Russian: проти́виться

• French: faire le chasse-neige
• German: im Schneepflug fahren, ausstemmen
• Russian: тормозить плугом

stem (plural stems)

1. Alternative form of steem

stem (plural stems)

1. Alternative form of STEM
   • 2015 May 29th, BBC News, How do US black students perform at school?

     Stem (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields are a particular cause for concern because within them there are more pronounced stereotypes, extreme competitiveness and gender inequities regarding the abilities and competencies of black male and female students.

stem

1. (countable) Acronym of scanning transmission electron microscope
2. (uncountable) Acronym of science, technology, engineering, (and) mathematics
   • 2012 March 22nd, David Blockley, Engineering: A Very Short Introduction (309), Oxford University Press, ISBN 9780199578696, chapter 1: “From idea to reality”, page 14:

     Although these six classifications of the scope and responsibility and specific engineering expertise are interesting and useful, they come from within engineering itself and they don’t help us to disentangle STEM.

• STEAM science, technology, engineering, arts, mathematics
• STEMM science, technology, engineering, mathematics, manufacturing

• German: MINT
• Spanish: CTIM

1. Surname