stem
/stɛm/noun, verb
stem is spelled S-T-E-M: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 20 times per million words in written English, the 4,302nd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “stem vs stim” about 40 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, stem means “The stock of a family; a race or generation of progenitors” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of stem is stems.
How many letters and syllables are in stem?
| Letters | 4: S-T-E-M |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 20 times per million words; the 4,302nd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is stem?
Stem appears 20 times per million words in written English, the 4,302nd most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce stem?
- US /stɛm/
- US /stɪm/
- Australia /stem/
Stem has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-stem.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with stem
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with stem?
4 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as stem from its last stressed vowel (/ɛm/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: mets.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of stem
- stems plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- stemming participle, present
- stemmed participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does stem mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The stock of a family; a race or generation of progenitors.
- 2
A branch of a family.
- 3
A branch, or group of branches, located outside a family or other cladistic group, but which is more closely related to that group than to any other taxon of the same rank.
- 4
An advanced or leading position; the lookout.
- 5
The above-ground stalk (technically axis) of a vascular plant, and certain anatomically similar, below-ground organs such as rhizomes, bulbs, tubers, and corms.
- 6
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
- 7
A narrow part on certain man-made objects, such as a wine glass, a tobacco pipe, a spoon.
- 8
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.
- 9
Alternative form of steem.
- 10
Alternative form of STEM.
- 11
Alternative spelling of stemme (“lesbian who combines stud and femme traits”).
verb
- 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
obsoleteTo hit with the stem of a ship; to ram.
- 6
To ram (clay, etc.) into a blasting hole.
- 7
To stop, hinder (for instance, a river or blood).
to stem a tide
- 8
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.
- 9
To use a stance with the feet spread apart, bracing them in opposite directions against the two walls of a chimney or dihedral.
noun
- 1
Acronym of scanning transmission electron microscope.
- 2
Acronym of science, technology, engineering, (and) mathematics.
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.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Stem in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| German | Geschlecht, Stamm, Herkunft , Zweig, Seitenlinie , entstielen |
| Portuguese | ramo , caule , haste , radical , talha-mar , derivar |
| French | équeuter , tige , racine, radical , étrave , potence |
| Spanish | tallo , raíz , roda , potencia, tija de manillar , vástago |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does stem come from?
From Middle English stem, stemme, stempne, stevin, from Old English stemn (“stem”), from Proto-West Germanic *stamni, from Proto-Germanic *stamniz (“stem, tree stalk”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to stand, stay”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).