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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

stele.

An upright (or formerly upright) slab containing engraved or painted decorations or inscriptions; a stela.

5 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈstiːli/modern/stiːl/modern
  1. An upright (or formerly upright) slab containing engraved or painted decorations or inscriptions; a stela.

  2. Any carved or engraved surface.

    uncommon
  3. An acroterion, the decoration on the ridge of an ancient Greek building such as a temple.

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

From Ancient Greek στήλη (stḗlē, “upright rock; pillar; column”), plural form στῆλαι (stêlai). Doublet of stela.

noun
  1. The central core of a plant's root and stem system, especially including the vascular tissue and developed from the plerome.

Where this word comes from

From 1886 French stèle, from Ancient Greek στήλη (stḗlē, “upright rock; pillar; column”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.