stem

1. 1.

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

   “thematic vowels are part of the stem”

   Synonymsrootroot wordbasethemeradical

   Broaderform

   linguistics

2. 2.

   a slender or elongated structure that supports a plant or fungus or a plant part or plant organ

   Synonymsstalk

   Broaderplant organ

   Narrowergynophorecarpophorecornstalkfilamentfuniclepetiolulecanesporangiophorecuttingtuber

   Partsinternodereceptaclenode
3. 3.

   cylinder forming a long narrow part of something

   Synonymsshank

   Broadercylinder

   Part ofanchorkeyhandlenail
4. 4.

   the tube of a tobacco pipe

   Broadertube

   Part ofpipe
5. 5.

   front part of a vessel or aircraft

   “he pointed the bow of the boat toward the finish line”

   Synonymsbowforeprow

   Broaderfront

   Part ofvessel
6. 6.

   a turn made in skiing; the back of one ski is forced outward and the other ski is brought parallel to it

   Synonymsstem turn

   Broaderturn

1. 1.

   grow out of, have roots in, originate in

   “The increase in the national debt stems from the last war”

   Broaderoriginate in
2. 2.

   cause to point inward

   “stem your skis”

   Broaderorient
3. 3.

   stop the flow of a liquid

   “staunch the blood flow”

   “stem the tide”

   Synonymsstanchstaunchhalt

   Broadercheck
4. 4.

   remove the stem from

   “for automatic natural language processing, the words must be stemmed”

   Broaderremove

Other forms of stem

plural

stems·

past tense or participle

stemmed

present participle

stemming

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about stem

What does stem mean?

stem means "(linguistics) the form of a word after all affixes are removed". That is the primary sense; the word has 10 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in stem?

stem has 1 syllable: stem. In IPA it is /ˈstɛm/.

What is another word for stem?

Close synonyms include root, root word, base, theme, radical. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is stem a common word?

stem is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.