stele

[ stee-lee, steel steel, stee-lee ]

noun

, plural ste·lai [stee, -lahy], ste·les [stee, -leez, steelz].

1. an upright stone slab or pillar bearing an inscription or design and serving as a monument, marker, or the like.
2. Architecture. a prepared surface on the face of a building, a rock, etc., bearing an inscription or the like.
3. (in ancient Rome) a burial stone.
4. Botany. the central cylinder or cylinders of vascular and related tissue in the stem, root, petiole, leaf, etc., of the higher plants.

stele

/ ˈstiːlə; ˈstiːlɪ; stiːl /

noun

1. an upright stone slab or column decorated with figures or inscriptions, common in prehistoric times
2. a prepared vertical surface that has a commemorative inscription or design, esp one on the face of a building
3. the conducting tissue of the stems and roots of plants, which is in the form of a cylinder, principally containing xylem, phloem, and pericycle See also protostele siphonostele

stele

/ stēl,stē′lē /

1. The central core of primary vascular tissues in the stem or root of a vascular plant, consisting of xylem and phloem together with pith.

Derived Forms

• stelar, adjective

Other Words From

• ste·lar [stee, -ler], adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of stele¹

First recorded in 1810–20; from Greek stḗlē, akin to histánai “to make stand,” Latin stāre “to stand”; stand

Word History and Origins

Origin of stele¹

C19: from Greek stēlē; related to Greek histanai to stand, Latin stāre

Example Sentences

The stele was illegally excavated near the ancient city of Zeugma, in what is near Gaziantep, in present-day southeastern Turkey, the police said.

From Seattle Times

The stele was handed over to the Turkish ambassador to Italy for return to Turkey.

From Seattle Times

The repatriation marked the first time the United States had returned cultural property to Yemen since 2004, when one funerary stele was transferred to the Yemeni Embassy.

From Washington Post

The network was also responsible for trafficking the "Gold Coffin", which was which was returned to Egypt in 2019, the Stele of Pa-di-Sena, which is also from the Late Dynastic Period and was handed over in 2020, and five pieces seized from New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art last year.

From BBC

In 1891 a French archaeological team uncovered a stone stele near the village of Sambor on the banks of the Mekong River, in what was then French Indochina, later to become Cambodia/Kampuchea.

From Scientific American

Related Words

• gravestone
• headstone
• marker
• masterpiece
• mausoleum
• pillar
• shrine
• slab
• statue
• stone
• tablet
• testament
• tomb
• tombstone
• tribute