stele
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
modern/ˈstiːli/
stele noun: an upright (or formerly upright) slab containing engraved or painted decorations or inscriptions; a stela.
Noun (1)
stele (plural steles or stelai)
- An upright (or formerly upright) slab containing engraved or painted decorations or inscriptions; a stela.
- A superior class of members...had their names inscribed upon a marble stélé or column.1820, T. S. Hughes, Trav. Sicily, I x 303
- It appears, that when any one of the family died, a stelè to his memory was added to the tomb.1825, T. D. Fosbroke, Encycl. Antiq., I v 70
- Any carved or engraved surface.
- Two large hieroglyphed steles incised upon the face of a projecting mass of boldly rounded cliff.1877, A. B. Edwards, Thousand Miles up Nile, VI 143
- An acroterion, the decoration on the ridge of an ancient Greek building such as a temple.
- Stele. The ornaments on the ridge of a Greek temple, answering to the antefixæ on the summit of the flank entablatures, are thus designated.c. 1840, Hosking, "Architecture" in Encyclopædia Britannica, III 470
Noun (2)
stele (plural steles)
- The central core of a plant's root and stem system, especially including the vascular tissue and developed from the plerome.
- The stele may have—in different structures—one to many protoxylem (primitive wood) groups, and is accordingly described as monarch...diarch...triarch...tetrarch...polyarch.1895, Sydney Howard Vines, A Students' Text-book of Botany, section 179
- The so-called central cylinder, for which Van Tieghem has proposed the name stele (column).1898, Eduard Strasburger et al., translated by Hobart Charles Porter, A Text-book of Botany, section 109
stele meaning in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Arabic
stele in Tamil
- archaeology: tall, slender stone monument
- சிற்பத்தூண் ciṟpattūṇ
stele in Telugu
- archaeology: tall, slender stone monument
- స్టీలే sṭīlē
stele in Malayalam
- archaeology: tall, slender stone monument
- ശിലാഫലകം śilāphalakaṁ
stele in Arabic
- archaeology: tall, slender stone monument
- لَوْحَة تِذْكَارِيَّة lawḥa tiḏkāriyya
More languagesFewer languages
- stele in Malay
- batu bersurat, prasasti
- stele in Indonesian
- prasasti
- stele in Persian
- سنگ یادبود sang yâdbud
- stele in Thai
- ศิลาจารึก sì-laa jaa-réuk
- stele in Vietnamese
- bia
- stele in Myanmar
- ကျောက်စာ kyaukca
Synonyms of stele
Forms of stele
| plural | steles |
|---|---|
| plural | stelai |
| alternative form | stélé |
| alternative form | stelè |
Origin of stele
From Ancient Greek στήλη (stḗlē, “upright rock; pillar; column”), plural form στῆλαι (stêlai). Doublet of stela.
From 1886 French stèle, from Ancient Greek στήλη (stḗlē, “upright rock; pillar; column”).
Words formed from stele
Words that rhyme with stele
Questions about stele
- What does stele mean?
- Stele means an upright (or formerly upright) slab containing engraved or painted decorations or inscriptions; a stela.
- What is stele in Tamil?
- Stele in Tamil is சிற்பத்தூண் (ciṟpattūṇ). See Stele meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is stele?
- Stele is a noun.
- How do you pronounce stele?
- Stele is pronounced /ˈstiːli/ (modern).
- What is the plural of stele?
- The plural of stele is steles.
Words near stele in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: stele (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-steely.ogg.
Cite this entry: “stele.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/stele. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.