stele
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stele¹
- /ˈstiːli/ modern
- /stiːl/ modern
Sounds like steelie, steely · Rhymes with -iːli
Where it comes from
From Ancient Greek στήλη (stḗlē, “upright rock; pillar; column”), plural form στῆλαι (stêlai). Doublet of stela.
noun steles · stelai · stélé · stelè
- An upright (or formerly upright) slab containing engraved or painted decorations or inscriptions; a stela. A superior class of members...had their names inscribed upon a marble stélé or column.
- Any carved or engraved surface. Two large hieroglyphed steles incised upon the face of a projecting mass of boldly rounded cliff.
- An acroterion, the decoration on the ridge of an ancient Greek building such as a temple. Stele. The ornaments on the ridge of a Greek temple, answering to the antefixæ on the summit of the flank entablatures, are thus designated.
Similar: stela
stele²
Where it comes from
From 1886 French stèle, from Ancient Greek στήλη (stḗlē, “upright rock; pillar; column”).
noun steles
- The central core of a plant's root and stem system, especially including the vascular tissue and developed from the plerome. The stele may have—in different structures—one to many protoxylem (primitive wood) groups, and is accordingly described as monarch...diarch...triarch...tetrarch...polyarch.
