stirps
Americannoun
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stirpes
plural
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a stock; family or branch of a family; line of descent.
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Law. a person from whom a family is descended.
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Biology Now Rare. a family, superfamily, or permanent variety.
noun
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genealogy a line of descendants from an ancestor; stock or strain
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botany a race or variety, esp one in which the characters are maintained by cultivation
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of stirps
1675–85; < Latin: rootstock, trunk
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:
They do not refuse the knowledge of other colonies of other stirps and origins, and they even combine in temporary alliance with them.
From April Hopes by William Dean Howells
He was a Jew and circumcised; for they have some few stirps of Jews yet remaining among them, whom they leave to their own religion.
From Ideal Commonwealths by Sir Saint Thomas More
These are called “individualizing characteristics,” “notae individuantes,” the familiar scholastic list of them being “forma, figura, locus, tempus, stirps, patria, nomen,” with manifest reference to the individual “man”.
From Ontology or the Theory of Being by Peter Coffey
And here we may bring in the 'stock'-dove, as being the 'stock' or stirps of the domestic kinds.
From On the Study of Words by Richard Chenevix Trench
A syllable in Latin may consist of from one to six letters, as a, ab, ars, Mars, stans, stirps.
From The Roman Pronunciation of Latin Why we use it and how to use it by Frances Ellen Lord
Choosing per stirpes can provide a hedge if a child has children before the beneficiary designation is updated, so that a deceased child’s share will pass on to their descendants.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 10, 2026
Per stirpes routes a deceased beneficiary’s portion to their children — in other words, your grandchildren.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 10, 2026
But the division per stirpes was not maintained throughout.
From On The Structure of Greek Tribal Society: An Essay by Hugh E. (Hugh Exton) Seebohm
These became modified into two stirpes: A, that of the worms; and B, that of the sponges.
From Critiques and Addresses by Thomas Henry Huxley
Indeed we need not care whether the division per stirpes or per capita, our share is not the less in either case.
From Americanisms and Briticisms with other essays on other isms by Brander Matthews
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