Sterno

¹ American  

[stur-noh] / ˈstɜr noʊ /

Trademark.

1. flammable hydrocarbon jelly packaged in a small can for use as a portable heat source for cooking.

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sterno- ² American  

1. a combining form representing sternum in compound words.

   sternocostal.

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Example Sentences

She also instantly knows that the mother who burnt her hand on a Sterno is unhoused.

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 5, 2025

“Try cooking 1,400 lamb chops to a perfect medium-rare at the same time, using nothing but sheet pans, Sterno and an upright aluminum cabinet on wheels called a hot box.”

From New York Times • Feb. 18, 2023

“So I did this,” he said, showcasing his clever, MacGyver-style street kitchen of aluminum foil tents, tables, Sterno and pans.

From Washington Post • Dec. 24, 2020

They inhabited only three of the house’s twenty-eight rooms, and whatever they had for dinner seems to have been cooked over a can of Sterno, on Big Edie’s nightstand.

From The New Yorker • Dec. 8, 2014

He helped with a bucket and mop Mother had borrowed from the porter, and brought us soup heated over recently acquired Sterno cans.

From "Cheaper by the Dozen" by Frank B. Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey