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Stem vs Steam - What's the difference?

stem | steam |

As a noun stem

is (countable).

As an initialism steam is

.

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

    * ----

    steam

    English

    (wikipedia steam)

    Noun

    (-)
  • The vapor formed when water changes from liquid phase to gas phase.
  • Pressurized water vapour used for heating, cooking, or to provide mechanical energy.
  • (figuratively) Internal energy for motive power.
  • After three weeks in bed he was finally able to sit up under his own steam .
  • (figuratively) Pent-up anger.
  • Dad had to go outside to blow off some steam .
  • A steam-powered vehicle.
  • Travel by means of a steam-powered vehicle.
  • (obsolete) Any exhalation.
  • * Milton
  • a steam of rich, distilled perfumes

    Synonyms

    * (a steam-powered vehicle) steamer

    Derived terms

    * blow off steam * build up steam * steam bath * steamboat * steam boiler * steam condenser * steam distillation * steam engine * steam hammer * steam heater * steam iron * steam locomotive * steam power * steam-powered * steam railroad * steamroller * steamship * steam shovel * steam train * steam turbine * run out of steam * under one's own steam

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (cooking) To cook with steam.
  • To expose to the action of steam; to apply steam to for softening, dressing, or preparing.
  • to steam wood or cloth
  • To produce or vent steam.
  • * Dryden
  • My brother's ghost hangs hovering there, / O'er his warm blood, that steams into the air.
  • To rise in vapour; to issue, or pass off, as vapour.
  • * Boyle
  • The dissolved amber steamed away into the air.
  • (figuratively) To become angry; to fume; to be incensed.
  • (figuratively) To make angry.
  • It really steams me to see her treat him like that.
  • To be covered with condensed water vapor.
  • With all the heavy breathing going on the windows were quickly steamed in the car.
  • To travel by means of steam power.
  • We steamed around the Mediterranean.
  • * N. P. Willis
  • The vessel steamed out of port.
  • (figuratively, or, literally) To move with great or excessive purposefulness.
  • If he heard of anyone picking the fruit he would steam off and lecture them.
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2010 , date=December 29 , author=Chris Whyatt , title=Chelsea 1 - 0 Bolton , work=BBC citation , page= , passage=That was the hard work largely done as the Ivorian waited for Malouda to steam into the box before releasing a simple crossed pass which the Frenchman side-footed home with aplomb. }}
  • (obsolete) To exhale.
  • (Spenser)

    Synonyms

    * See also

    Derived terms

    * steamer * steaming

    Adjective

    (-)
  • Old-fashioned; from before the digital age.
  • *
  • *
  • *
  • *