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Stem vs Block - What's the difference?

stem | block |

As nouns the difference between stem and block

is that stem is (countable) while block is bloc.

stem

English

(wikipedia stem)

Etymology 1

(etyl) stemn, .

Noun

(en noun)
  • The stock of a family; a race or generation of progenitors.
  • * Milton
  • all that are of noble stem
  • * Herbert
  • While I do pray, learn here thy stem / And true descent.
  • A branch of a family.
  • * Shakespeare
  • This is a stem / Of that victorious stock.
  • An advanced or leading position; the lookout.
  • * Fuller
  • Wolsey sat at the stem more than twenty years.
  • (botany) The above-ground stalk (technically axis) of a vascular plant, and certain anatomically similar, below-ground organs such as rhizomes, bulbs, tubers, and corms.
  • * Sir Walter Raleigh
  • After they are shot up thirty feet in length, they spread a very large top, having no bough nor twig in the trunk or the stem .
  • A slender supporting member of an individual part of a plant such as a flower or a leaf; also, by analogy, the shaft of a feather.
  • the stem of an apple or a cherry
  • *
  • A narrow part on certain man-made objects, such as a wine glass, a tobacco pipe, a spoon.
  • (linguistic morphology) The main part of an uninflected]] word to which affixes may be added to form inflections of the word. A stem often has a more fundamental root. Systematic conjugations and [[declension, declensions derive from their stems.
  • (typography) A vertical stroke of a letter.
  • (music) A vertical stroke of a symbol representing a note in written music.
  • (nautical) The vertical or nearly vertical forward extension of the keel, to which the forward ends of the planks or strakes are attached.
  • Derived terms
    * brain stem * from stem to stern * stem cell * stemless * stemplot * unstemmed

    Verb

    (stemm)
  • To remove the stem from.
  • to stem''' cherries; to '''stem tobacco leaves
  • To be caused]] or [[derive, derived; to originate.
  • The current crisis stems from the short-sighted politics of the previous government.
  • To descend in a family line.
  • To direct the stem (of a ship) against; to make headway against.
  • (obsolete) To hit with the stem of a ship; to ram.
  • * 1596 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , IV.ii:
  • As when two warlike Brigandines at sea, / With murdrous weapons arm'd to cruell fight, / Doe meete together on the watry lea, / They stemme ech other with so fell despight, / That with the shocke of their owne heedlesse might, / Their wooden ribs are shaken nigh a sonder
  • To ram (clay, etc.) into a blasting hole.
  • Etymology 2

    From (etyl) . Cognate with German stemmen, Dutch stemmen, stempen; compare (stammer).

    Verb

    (stemm)
  • To stop, hinder (for instance, a river or blood).
  • to stem a tide
  • * Denham
  • [They] stem the flood with their erected breasts.
  • * Alexander Pope
  • Stemmed the wild torrent of a barbarous age.
  • (skiing) To move the feet apart and point the tips of the skis inward in order to slow down the speed or to facilitate a turn.
  • Synonyms
    * (sense) to be due to, to arise from * See also

    Etymology 3

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Anagrams

    * ----

    block

    English

    (wikipedia block)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A substantial, often approximately cuboid, piece of any substance.
  • *
  • You young porkers who are sitting in front of me, every one of you will scream your lives out at the block within a year.
    A block of ice.
    A block of stone.
    Anne Boleyn placed her head on the block and awaited her execution.
  • A group of urban lots of property, several acres in extent, not crossed by public streets.
  • I'm going for a walk around the block .
  • A residential building consisting of flats.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham)
  • , title=(The China Governess) , chapter=Foreword citation , passage=He turned back to the scene before him and the enormous new block' of council dwellings. The design was some way after Corbusier but the ' block was built up on plinths and resembled an Atlantic liner swimming diagonally across the site.}}
    A block of flats.
  • The distance from one street to another in a city that is built (approximately) to a grid pattern.
  • The place you are looking for is two long blocks''' east and one short '''block north.
  • (slang) The human head.
  • I'll knock your block off.
  • A wig block: a simplified head model upon which wigs are worn.
  • * 1851 , (Herman Melville), (Moby Dick) ,
  • Next morning, Monday, after disposing of the embalmed head to a barber, for a block , I settled my own and comrade’s bill; using, however, my comrade’s money.
  • A mould on which hats, bonnets, etc., are shaped.
  • * Shakespeare
  • He wears his faith but as the fashion of his hat; it ever changes with the next block .
  • A set of sheets (of paper) joined together at one end.
  • A block of 100 tickets.
  • (computing) A logical data storage unit containing one or more physical sectors (see cluster).
  • (computing) A region of code in a program that acts as a single unit, such as a function or loop.
  • (cryptography) A fixed-length group of bits making up part of a message.
  • (rigging) A case with one or more sheaves/pulleys, used with ropes to increase or redirect force, for example, as part of the rigging of a sailing ship.
  • (chemistry) A portion of a macromolecule, comprising many units, that has at least one feature not present in adjacent portions.
  • Something that prevents something from passing (see blockage).
  • There's a block in the pipe that means the water can't get through.
  • (sports) An action to interfere with the movement of an opposing player or of the object of play (ball, puck).
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011
  • , date=February 12 , author=Oliver Brett , title=Sunderland 1–2 Tottenham , work=BBC citation , page= , passage=The match proved an unedifying spectacle until Spurs won a corner following their first move of real quality, John Mensah making an important block with Jermain Defoe poised to strike. }}
  • (cricket) A shot played by holding the bat vertically in the path of the ball, so that it loses momentum and drops to the ground.
  • (volleyball) A defensive play by one or more players meant to deflect a spiked ball back to the hitter’s court.
  • (philately) A joined group of four (or in some cases nine) postage stamps, forming a roughly square shape.
  • A section of split logs used as fuel.
  • (UK) Solitary confinement.
  • A cellblock.
  • (falconry) The perch on which a bird of prey is kept.
  • (printing, dated) A piece of hard wood on which a stereotype or electrotype plate is mounted.
  • (obsolete) A blockhead; a stupid fellow; a dolt.
  • * Shakespeare
  • What a block art thou!
  • A section of a railroad where the block system is used.
  • Synonyms

    * See also * city block

    Derived terms

    ; cuboid * * * * ; group of buildings * * * * * ; computing * ; distance * ; cutting base * * ; prevent passage * * * * * * ; rigging * * ; human head * * * ; volleyball * * * ; miscellaneous * * * * *

    Synonyms

    * (volleyball) stuff, roof, wall

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To fill (something) so that it is not possible to pass.
  • The pipe is blocked .
  • To prevent (something or someone) from passing.
  • You're blocking the road – I can't get through.
  • To prevent (something from happening or someone from doing something).
  • His plan to take over the business was blocked by the boss.
  • (sports) To impede an opponent.
  • He blocked the basketball player's shot.
    The offensive linemen tried to block the blitz.
  • (theater) To specify the positions and movements of the actors.
  • It was very difficult to block this scene convincingly.
  • (cricket) To hit with a block.
  • (cricket) To play a block shot.
  • To disable communication via telephone, instant messaging, etc., with an undesirable someone.
  • I tried to send you a message, but you've blocked me!
  • (computing) To wait.
  • When the condition expression is false, the thread blocks on the condition variable.
  • To stretch or mould (a knitted item, a hat, etc.) into the desired shape.
  • I blocked the mittens by wetting them and pinning them to a shaped piece of cardboard.