stele
Americannoun
plural
stelai, steles-
an upright stone slab or pillar bearing an inscription or design and serving as a monument, marker, or the like.
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Architecture. a prepared surface on the face of a building, a rock, etc., bearing an inscription or the like.
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(in ancient Rome) a burial stone.
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Botany. the central cylinder or cylinders of vascular and related tissue in the stem, root, petiole, leaf, etc., of the higher plants.
noun
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an upright stone slab or column decorated with figures or inscriptions, common in prehistoric times
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a prepared vertical surface that has a commemorative inscription or design, esp one on the face of a building
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the conducting tissue of the stems and roots of plants, which is in the form of a cylinder, principally containing xylem, phloem, and pericycle See also protostele siphonostele
Other Word Forms
- stelar adjective
Etymology
Origin of stele
First recorded in 1810–20; from Greek stḗlē, akin to histánai “to make stand,” Latin stāre “to stand”; stand
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.
The room’s most impressive object is a 5th century BC carved marble stele, 8 feet tall.
From Los Angeles Times
The priests were standing near a field of ancient obelisks, or stelae, which date from the 4th Century.
From BBC
In a historic agreement with the Republic of Yemen, the museum will research and temporarily care for the funerary stelae.
From BBC
The stele was illegally excavated near the ancient city of Zeugma, in what is near Gaziantep, in present-day southeastern Turkey, the police said.
From Seattle Times
Sixty-five of the artifacts are funerary stelae — stone slabs featuring carved heads — traced to the second half of the first millennium B.C. in northwest Yemen.
From Washington Post
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.
