| stem | |
| 1. n. The stock of a family; a race or generation of progenitors. | |
| 2. n. A branch of a family. | |
| 3. n. An advanced or leading position; the lookout. | |
| 4. n. (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. | |
| 5. n. 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. n. A narrow part on certain man-made objects, such as a wine glass, a tobacco pipe, a spoon. | |
| 7. n. (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 deri | |
| 8. n. (slang) A person's leg. | |
| 9. n. (typography) A vertical stroke of a letter. | |
| 10. n. (music) A vertical stroke marking the length of a note in written music. | |
| 11. n. (nautical) The vertical or nearly vertical forward extension of the keel, to which the forward ends of the planks or strakes are attached. | |
| 12. n. Component on a bicycle that connects the handlebars to the bicycle fork | |
| 13. n. (anatomy) A part of an anatomic structure considered without its possible branches or ramifications. | |
| 14. n. (slang) A crack pipe; or the long, hollow portion of a similar pipe (i.e. meth pipe) resembling a crack pipe. | |
| 15. n. (chiefly British) A winder on a clock, watch, or similar mechanism | |
| 16. v. To remove the stem from. | |
| to stem cherries; to stem tobacco leaves | |
| 17. v. To be caused or derived; to originate. | |
| The current crisis stems from the short-sighted politics of the previous government. | |
| 18. v. To descend in a family line. | |
| 19. v. To direct the stem (of a ship) against; to make headway against. | |
| 20. v. (obsolete) To hit with the stem of a ship; to ram. | |
| 21. v. To ram (clay, etc.) into a blasting hole. | |
| 22. v. To stop, hinder (for instance, a river or blood). | |
| to stem a tide | |
| 23. v. (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. | |
| 24. n. alternative form of steem | |
| 25. n. alternative form of STEM | |
