Sternian

Sternian adjective: of or relating to Laurence Sterne, Irish novelist.

Adjective (1)

Sternian (comparative more Sternian, superlative most Sternian)

Of or relating to Laurence Sterne, Irish novelist.
- They were as compact as his college work had been Sternian in its discursiveness.1891 December, The Unitarian Review, volume 36, page 448
- So too does his account of the master's pocket watch, another Sternian acquisition.2000, Stephen Werner, The Comic Diderot: A Reading of the Fictions, page 125

Sternian (comparative more Sternian, superlative most Sternian)

Of or relating to Howard Stern (born 1954), American radio and television personality.
- In fact, it is this inherited refrain, blurted out in the same tone of voice, that serves as a kind of mantra for the entire Sternian enterprise: a perpetually indicting bee in Howard's bonnet (and that hairdo is definitely a bonnet).1994, Barbara Kruger, Remote Control: Power, Cultures, and the World of Appearances
- He wants to see what's bouncing around inside your blouse or dangling down your inside trouser leg and to refuse him is to take refuge in a modesty that, in a Sternian universe, is almost unbecoming.2001, Charles Marowitz, Stage Dust: A Critic's Cultural Scrapbook from the 1990s, page 124

In the opening of Bednyi Leandr, for example, the humorous voice of the narrator engages in a synchronic reflection on the act of writing in the Sternian manner.2006, Alessandra Tosi, Waiting for Pushkin: Russian Fiction in the Reign of Alexander I (1801-1825):
But they add two other elements to their mix: a healthy helping of Howard Sternian locker-room talk and, much more important, a startlingly egalitarian ethic of listener participation.2001, Brill's Content, volume 4, page 100:

comparative	more Sternian
superlative	most Sternian

From Sterne + -ian.

From Stern + -ian.

What does Sternian mean?: Sternian means of or relating to Laurence Sterne, Irish novelist.
How do you use Sternian in a sentence?: In the opening of Bednyi Leandr, for example, the humorous voice of the narrator engages in a synchronic reflection on the act of writing in the Sternian manner.
What part of speech is Sternian?: Sternian is an adjective.

Adapted from Wiktionary: Sternian (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “Sternian.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sternian. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.