stern
adjective
firm, strict, or uncompromising.
sterns
-
pluralof stern.plural
The grammatical form denoting more than one person, place, thing, or idea.
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.
Boats have toppled pilings, and hard landings have cracked sterns.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
Navy said Revolutionary Guard vessels repeatedly crossed the bows and sterns of several American ships at close range and high speed in the northern Gulf.
From Washington Times ● Apr. 22, 2020
With the sterns half-ashore, breakers could then cut in and dismantle the ships laterally, as a snacker might eat through a baguette.
From The Guardian ● May 2, 2017
Thousands of office workers rush past it every day without noticing its three bay windows carved as the sterns of baroque frigates, complete with waves, dolphins and trailing seaweed.
From New York Times ● Feb. 27, 2015
When seventeenth-century European sailors first saw the southern skies they put objects of seventeenth- century interest in the heavens—toucans and peacocks, telescopes and microscopes, compasses and the sterns of ships.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
