Word.ws English Dictionary

sternest

sternest is the superlative form of stern.

Meaning of stern

Adjective

stern (comparative sterner, superlative sternest)

  1. Having a hardness and severity of nature or manner.
    • I haue beene wooed, as I intreat thee now, / Euen by the ſterne, and direfull God of warre, / VVhoſe ſinowie necke in battel nere did bow, / VVho conquers where he comes in euery iarre; […]1594, [William Shakespeare], Venus and Adonis, 2nd edition, London: […] Richard Field, […], →OCLC, [verse 17], lines [97–100]
    Synonyms:
    grim, severe
  2. Grim and forbidding in appearance.
    • The remark earned me a stern rebuke.

See all 10 meanings of stern

Questions about sternest

What is sternest the superlative form of?
Sternest is the superlative form of stern.

Words near sternest in the dictionary

  1. sterned
  2. sterner
  3. sterner sex
  4. sterners
  5. sternes
  6. sternest
  7. sternfast
  8. sternfasts
  9. sternforemost
  10. Sternhagen
  11. Sternian

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sternest (page history and authors); stern (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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