English Explanatory Dictionary

stern

English dictionary entry

Meanings

adj
  1. Having a hardness and severity of nature or manner.
  2. Grim and forbidding in appearance.
noun
  1. The rear part (after end) of a ship or other vessel.
  2. The post of management or direction.
  3. The hinder part of anything.
  4. The tail of an animal; now used only of the tail of a dog.
verb
  1. To steer, to direct the course of (a ship).
  2. To propel or move backward or stern-first in the water.
noun
  1. A bird, the black tern, seabird.
name
  1. A surname.

Pronunciation

stûn /stɜːn/ stûrn /stɝn/ en-us-stern.ogg

Word forms

stern sterner sternest sterne sterns sterning sterned

Etymology

From Middle English stern, sterne, sturne, from Old English styrne (“stern, grave, strict, austere, hard, severe, cruel”), from Proto-Germanic *sturnijaz (“angry, astonished, shocked”), from Proto-Indo-European *ster- (“rigid, stiff”). Cognate with Scots stern (“bold, courageous, fierce, resolute”), Old High German stornēn (“to be astonished”), Dutch stuurs (“glum, austere”), Swedish stursk (“insolent”).

Synonyms

brutal callous cold cold-eyed cruel dour flint-hearted forbidding frosty grim hard hard-boiled hardened hardhearted heartless harsh humorless icy iron-hearted insensate insensitive marble-hearted rigorous rockhearted severe stern stonehearted stony stonyhearted strict tough unsympathetic unmoved bleak sombre cheerless comfortless dark morose depressing desolate dire disconsolate dismal doleful dolesome drear drearisome dreary dreich forlorn gayless gray gloomsome gloomy joyless lack-laughter lugubrious melancholy mirthless

Antonyms

animated cheerful emotional empathic gregarious kindly lenient soft unstrict vivacious bow stem forestem fore prow prore

Related words

ghastly mean obstinate resilient rigid ruthless sinister strong sturdy surly taciturn uncompassionate unrelenting cheerless keel aft

Derived words

sternity sternly sternness stern plane stern sex stern sheets stern-wheeler astern stem to stern pink stern square stern sterncastle stern chase stern chaser sterndrive sternfast sternforemost stern frame sternless sternman sternmost sternpicker sternport sternpost sternsheets sternsman sternward sternwards sternway sternwheel torpedo stern tunnel stern Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method Stern-Brocot tree Stern-Gerlach experiment Sternian
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