stamen
Americannoun
plural
stamens, staminanoun
Other Word Forms
- stamened adjective
- staminal adjective
- staminiferous adjective
Etymology
Origin of stamen
1640–50; < Latin stāmen warp in upright loom, thread, filament, equivalent to stā ( re ) to stand + -men noun suffix; akin to Greek stḗmōn warp, Sanskrit sthāman place
Explanation
A stamen is the part of a flower that produces pollen so it can reproduce. The number of stamens in most flowers is the same as the number of petals. In many flowers, you can easily see the stamens—or more precisely, the parts of the stamen called filaments, the thin stalks in the middle of the bloom, and the anthers, the tiny pods that hold the pollen. In Latin, stamen means "foundational warp thread in weaving," and its root means "to stand, or make firm."
Vocabulary lists containing stamen
Life Science: Plants
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Plants (Botany) - Middle School
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Plants (Botany) - High School
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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.
This allowed them to identify a signal emitted by the maternal tissue that attracts pollen tubes by leading them to elongate along the stamen tissue and reach the site of fertilization.
From Science Daily • May 21, 2024
The second group was more lackadaisical, and its fresh stamen concentration peaked at the 45-minute mark.
From New York Times • Apr. 20, 2019
The stamen consists a long, stalk-like filament with an anther at the end.
From Textbooks • Jan. 1, 2015
Her ivory neck and face rises like a stamen from her red satin dress, perhaps evoking the Florentine fleur-de-lis.
From The Guardian • Oct. 22, 2010
I was the stamen in the middle of a twirling flower.
From "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd
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.
