STEM (stemmed, stemming)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected forms: stemmed    , stemming   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does stem mean? 

• STEM (noun)
  The noun STEM has 6 senses:

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

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

3. cylinder forming a long narrow part of something

4. the tube of a tobacco pipe

5. front part of a vessel or aircraft

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

  Familiarity information: STEM used as a noun is common.

• STEM (verb)
  The verb STEM has 4 senses:

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

2. cause to point inward

3. stop the flow of a liquid

4. remove the stem from

  Familiarity information: STEM used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• STEM (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

base; radical; root; root word; stem; theme

Context example:

thematic vowels are part of the stem

Hypernyms ("stem" is a kind of...):

descriptor; form; signifier; word form (the phonological or orthographic sound or appearance of a word that can be used to describe or identify something)

Domain category:

linguistics (the scientific study of language)

Derivation:

stem (remove the stem from)

stem (grow out of, have roots in, originate in)

Sense 2

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Synonyms:

stalk; stem

Hypernyms ("stem" is a kind of...):

plant organ (a functional and structural unit of a plant or fungus)

Meronyms (parts of "stem"):

leaf node; node ((botany) the small swelling that is the part of a plant stem from which one or more leaves emerge)

receptacle (enlarged tip of a stem that bears the floral parts)

internode (a segment of a stem between two nodes)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "stem"):

beanstalk (stem of a bean plant)

bole; tree trunk; trunk (the main stem of a tree; usually covered with bark; the bole is usually the part that is commercially useful for lumber)

cladode; cladophyll; phylloclad; phylloclade (a flattened stem resembling and functioning as a leaf)

caudex; stock (persistent thickened stem of a herbaceous perennial plant)

stipe (supporting stalk or stem-like structure especially of a pistil or fern frond or supporting a mushroom cap)

flower stalk; scape (erect leafless flower stalk growing directly from the ground as in a tulip)

leafstalk; petiole (the slender stem that supports the blade of a leaf)

bulb (a modified bud consisting of a thickened globular underground stem serving as a reproductive structure)

corm (solid swollen underground bulb-shaped stem or stem base and serving as a reproductive structure)

branch (a division of a stem, or secondary stem arising from the main stem of a plant)

culm (stem of plants of the Gramineae)

halm; haulm (stems of beans and peas and potatoes and grasses collectively as used for thatching and bedding)

caudex (woody stem of palms and tree ferns)

axis (the main stem or central part about which plant organs or plant parts such as branches are arranged)

rhizome; rootstalk; rootstock (a horizontal plant stem with shoots above and roots below serving as a reproductive structure)

tuber (a fleshy underground stem or root serving for reproductive and food storage)

cutting; slip (a part (sometimes a root or leaf or bud) removed from a plant to propagate a new plant through rooting or grafting)

sporangiophore (stalk bearing one or more sporangia)

cane (a strong slender often flexible stem as of bamboos, reeds, rattans, or sugar cane)

petiolule (the stalk of a leaflet)

funicle; funiculus (the stalk of a plant ovule or seed)

filament (the stalk of a stamen)

corn stalk; cornstalk (the stalk of a corn plant)

carpophore (a slender stalk that furnishes an axis for a carpel)

gynophore (the stalk of a pistil that raises it above the receptacle)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Cylinder forming a long narrow part of something

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

shank; stem

Hypernyms ("stem" is a kind of...):

cylinder (a surface generated by rotating a parallel line around a fixed line)

Holonyms ("stem" is a part of...):

anchor; ground tackle (a mechanical device that prevents a vessel from moving)

grip; handgrip; handle; hold (the appendage to an object that is designed to be held in order to use or move it)

key (metal device shaped in such a way that when it is inserted into the appropriate lock the lock's mechanism can be rotated)

nail (a thin pointed piece of metal that is hammered into materials as a fastener)

pin (a small slender (often pointed) piece of wood or metal used to support or fasten or attach things)

wineglass (a glass that has a stem and in which wine is served)

Sense 4

Meaning:

The tube of a tobacco pipe

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("stem" is a kind of...):

tube; tubing (conduit consisting of a long hollow object (usually cylindrical) used to hold and conduct objects or liquids or gases)

Holonyms ("stem" is a part of...):

pipe; tobacco pipe (a tube with a small bowl at one end; used for smoking tobacco)

Sense 5

Meaning:

Front part of a vessel or aircraft

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

bow; fore; prow; stem

Context example:

he pointed the bow of the boat toward the finish line

Hypernyms ("stem" is a kind of...):

front (the side that is seen or that goes first)

Holonyms ("stem" is a part of...):

vessel; watercraft (a craft designed for water transportation)

Sense 6

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

stem; stem turn

Hypernyms ("stem" is a kind of...):

turn; turning (the act of changing or reversing the direction of the course)

Derivation:

stem (cause to point inward)

• STEM (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they stem    ... he / she / it stems   
Past simple: stemmed   
Past participle: stemmed   
-ing form: stemming   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Grow out of, have roots in, originate in

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Context example:

The increase in the national debt stems from the last war

Hypernyms (to "stem" is one way to...):

originate in (come from)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Derivation:

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

Sense 2

Meaning:

Cause to point inward

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Context example:

stem your skis

Hypernyms (to "stem" is one way to...):

orient (cause to point)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

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

Sense 3

Meaning:

Stop the flow of a liquid

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

halt; stanch; staunch; stem

Context example:

stem the tide

Hypernyms (to "stem" is one way to...):

check (arrest the motion (of something) abruptly)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Sense 4

Meaning:

Remove the stem from

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Context example:

for automatic natural language processing, the words must be stemmed

Hypernyms (to "stem" is one way to...):

remove; take; take away; withdraw (remove something concrete, as by lifting, pushing, or taking off, or remove something abstract)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

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

stemmer (an algorithm for removing inflectional and derivational endings in order to reduce word forms to a common stem)

 Context examples 

Mozobil is given together with granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) to help move stem cells from the bone marrow to the blood.

(Mozobil, NCI Dictionary)

If you have symptoms, you may have chemotherapy, stem cell transplantation, radiation, or targeted therapy.

(Multiple Myeloma, NIH: National Cancer Institute)

If you have a myelodysplastic syndrome, the stem cells do not mature into healthy blood cells.

(Myelodysplastic Syndromes, NIH National Cancer Institute)

Blood stem cells found in the circulation after being stimulated to leave the bone marrow, usually by treatment with a cytokine or other drug.

(Mobilized Peripheral Blood Stem Cell, NCI Thesaurus)

Stem cells have the potential to turn into many different types of cells.

(Early stimulation improves performance of bioengineered human heart cells, National Institutes of Health)

Donor T-cell therapy may help control transplant-related infections following allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

(Allogeneic T-Lymphocytes BPX-501, NCI Thesaurus)

But surprisingly, the individual stems had shrunk by 16%.

(High carbon dioxide can create 'shrinking stems' in marshes, National Science Foundation)

A new National Institutes of Health study shows that uncommitted neural stems cells generally survive LACV infection, while LACV often kills neurons.

(Cerebral organoid model provides clues about how to prevent virus-induced brain cell death, National Institutes of Health)

A term that is currently used to define non-blood adult stem cells from a variety of tissues, although it is not clear that mesenchymal stem cells from different tissues are the same.

(Mesenchymal stem cells, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

A clonal (malignant) proliferation of myeloid cells originating from a primitive stem cell.

(Myeloid Neoplasm, NCI Thesaurus)