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# stem

«stem» in Mova's school dictionary: **the long thin part of a plant that holds up the leaves…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

noun (a stem, stems); verb (stem, stems, stemmed, stemming)

### meaning for a pupil

1) A stem is the long thin part of a plant that holds up the leaves and flowers. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/stem/#m1)

2) A stem is also any thin part like that, such as the stem of a wine glass or an apple stalk. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/stem/#m2)

3) In grammar, the stem is the main part of a word before endings are added. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/stem/#m3)

4) To stem from means to come from or be caused by. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/stem/#m4)

5) STEM means science, technology, engineering and maths. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/stem/#m5)

### sense in the lessons

In science lessons on plants, the stem carries water and food between roots and leaves; celery in coloured water shows it. In maths, a stem-and-leaf plot shows numbers split into tens (stem) and ones (leaf). In school, STEM subjects are science, technology, engineering and maths. Phrases: stem and leaf, flower stem, stem from, STEM club.

### examples

- The stem holds the flower up towards the sun. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/stem/#x1)
- Water travels up the stem to the leaves. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/stem/#x2)
- Cut the stems of the roses before you put them in a vase. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/stem/#x3)
- Pull the stem off the apple. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/stem/#x4)
- In a stem-and-leaf plot, 34 has stem 3 and leaf 4. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/stem/#x5)
- Her fear of dogs stems from a bad bite. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/stem/#x6)
- Our school has a STEM club on Fridays. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/stem/#x7)
- The stem of «running» is «run». [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/stem/#x8)
- There were no fewer than thirty blossoms on its stem. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/stem/#x9)

### note

Double the m in stemmed, stemming. «Stalk» is a near synonym for plant stems. In a stem-and-leaf plot, the stem is usually the tens digit and each leaf is a ones digit, so stem 2 with leaves 1, 5 means 21 and 25.

### In the corpora

- [Water inside plant cells pushes outwards and keeps stems firm, like air in a balloon; without enough water the plant wilts.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/56-how-plants-grow/11/)
- [Stems have thin tubes that carry water up from the roots, and other tubes that carry sugar round the plant.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/57-roots-stems-and-leaves/7/)
- [Rafflesia has no leaves, stems or roots of its own and lives inside a vine as a parasite.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/161-borneo-orangutans-proboscis-monkeys-and-the-biggest-flower/7/)
- [Not everything under the ground is a root, though: a potato is a swollen stem, and its eyes are buds.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/250-plants-deeper-roots-and-how-they-drink-hold-and-push/4/)
- [A potato is a swollen underground stem called a tuber, and its eyes are buds; a sweet potato really is a root.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/288-plants-we-eat-roots-stems-leaves-flowers-fruits-and-seeds/7/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «stem» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/stem/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.