stewardship
Americannoun
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the position and duties of a steward, a person who acts as the surrogate of another or others, especially by managing property, financial affairs, an estate, etc.
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the responsible overseeing and protection of something considered worth caring for and preserving.
New regulatory changes will result in better stewardship of lands that are crucial for open space and wildlife habitat.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of stewardship
Explanation
Stewardship means the management or care of something, particularly the kind that works. If your company is making money, there’s probably been careful stewardship — or, a lot of luck. The sphere or responsibility of a steward (as in a manager or administrator), stewardship is often used to mean "the care, handling and management of resources." Your school requires stewardship to make sure its supplies aren’t stretched. Your clean water may be thanks to the stewardship of an environmental office. Though there is a steward on a ship to handle food and supplies, the ship in stewardship is not a seagoing vessel; it's just a suffix.
Vocabulary lists containing stewardship
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Frightful's Mountain
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
For three decades, Minerva Analytics has championed a simple principle: Stewardship should always reflect the investor’s voice—not ours, not a trade association’s and certainly not a politician’s.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 30, 2025
Jonathan Harrison, a financial advisor at Sound Stewardship in Overland Park, Kan., has been overweighting large-cap value, small-caps, and international stocks in his client portfolios for years.
From Barron's • Oct. 25, 2025
The NFU wants Defra to let existing Countryside Stewardship agreements continue for a year while a long-term plan is developed.
From BBC • Sep. 9, 2025
Karen Kayfetz, chief of CalRecycle’s Product Stewardship branch, didn’t respond to questions or concerns about the inclusion of a report that is not freely available to the public to review.
From Los Angeles Times • May 30, 2025
The happiest time of Ellenbog's life began in the summer of 1522, when after ten years' service he was allowed by the Abbot to resign his Stewardship.
From The Age of Erasmus Lectures Delivered in the Universities of Oxford and London by Allen, P. S. (Percy Stafford)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
