stele
Americannoun
-
stelai,
plural
-
steles
plural
-
an upright stone slab or pillar bearing an inscription or design and serving as a monument, marker, or the like.
-
Architecture. a prepared surface on the face of a building, a rock, etc., bearing an inscription or the like.
-
(in ancient Rome) a burial stone.
-
Botany. the central cylinder or cylinders of vascular and related tissue in the stem, root, petiole, leaf, etc., of the higher plants.
noun
-
an upright stone slab or column decorated with figures or inscriptions, common in prehistoric times
-
a prepared vertical surface that has a commemorative inscription or design, esp one on the face of a building
-
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
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of stele
First recorded in 1810–20; from Greek stḗlē, akin to histánai “to make stand,” Latin stāre “to stand”; see stand
Explanation
An ancient, upright stone monument is called a stele. Many stelae were carved with inscriptions and used as grave markers. These tall slabs played an important role in the traditions of ancient Greece, Egypt, Somalia, and more. In addition to its potential use as a gravestone, a stele might be used as a territory or boundary marker, or even a way to publicize new laws or a ruler's military successes. The word derives from the Greek stēlē, "standing block." In botany, a stele is the upright core of a vascular plant.
Vocabulary lists containing stele
The Lightning Thief
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Mesopotamia - Introductory
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Civilizations and Peoples of the Fertile Crescent, Lessons 3–4
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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.
See Examples For:
A stele monument was erected in 2024 to commemorate the victims of the Hirtenberg camp.
From Barron's ● Aug. 28, 2026
The room’s most impressive object is a 5th century BC carved marble stele, 8 feet tall.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 11, 2025
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 ● Apr. 28, 2023
In stems, the xylem and the phloem form a structure called a vascular bundle; in roots, this is termed the vascular stele or vascular cylinder.
From Textbooks ● Jun. 9, 2022
He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, a stele, for a girl about our age.
From "The Lightning Thief" by Rick Riordan
Dr. Strzygowski gives similarly shaped stelai from Alexandria and Cairo, with incised awkward scrolls, and some of Arab date.
From The Shores of the Adriatic The Austrian Side, The Küstenlande, Istria, and Dalmatia by F. Hamilton (Frederick Hamilton) Jackson
The finest specimens, from the purely artistic point of view, are undoubtedly the two stelai found at Athens.
From Shorter Prose Pieces by Oscar Wilde
The finest specimens, from the purely artistic point of view, are undoubtedly the two stelai found at Athens.
From Miscellanies by Robert Ross
But the Malcolm steles are also poetic memorials — among the many that Chase-Riboud would make to misunderstood or little-known figures from history.
From New York Times ● Oct. 4, 2022
Most impressive, the refurbished mosaics and a wall of 760 fragments of funerary steles.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 28, 2021
It consists of a field of massive gray steles designed to communicate sorrow, accompanied by an underground information center.
From Time ● Sep. 19, 2014
He also goes around to famous mountains, where they erect steles, stone monuments, which say that the Emperor's realm is now totally unified.
From BBC ● Oct. 15, 2012
At the foot of the temple on the right of the engraving there is a palace, on the left two obelisk-shaped steles and a small temple of a type to be presently described.
From A History of Art in Chaldæa & Assyria, v. 1 by Sir Walter Armstrong
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.
