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Stella, the Latin word for "star," shines brightly in the word constellation, but stella words have been favored by scientists to describe earthly things as much as heavenly bodies. Stellar was once used to mean "star-shaped." That use is no longer current, but today biologists and geologists might use one of these synonyms: stellular, stellate, and stelliform. Poets, too, have looked to stella. John Milton used stellar in its infancy when he wrote in Paradise Lost "these soft fires … shed down their stellar virtue." Stellar shot into its leading role as a synonym of star (as when we say "stellar pupil") in the late 1800s.
Examples of stellar in a Sentence
Kaitlyn Huamani, Los Angeles Times, 20 Apr. 2024
With original music by Arcade Fire’s Will Butler, and a stellar cast including Succession’s Juliana Canfield and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’s Will Brill, this captivating new Broadway play hits all the right notes.
—Ew Staff Published, EW.com, 19 Apr. 2024
The service, standards and stellar food will remain at the high level diners have expected of Ardent for the past decade.
—Rachel Bernhard, Journal Sentinel, 19 Apr. 2024
Weekend one of Coachella had no shortage of stellar performances and celebrity sightings.
—Christian Allaire, Vogue, 18 Apr. 2024
Most massive stellar black hole in our galaxy found
The European Space Agency.
—Elizabeth Gamillo, Discover Magazine, 18 Apr. 2024
But sometimes lost in the mix of Reinhart’s season is his stellar play on the other end of the ice.
—Jordan McPherson, Miami Herald, 7 Apr. 2024
The Royals’ starting rotation has a stellar 1.43 ERA but haven’t had the run support to back them up often this season.
—Shreyas Laddha, Kansas City Star, 5 Apr. 2024
Led by a standout performance by Michael Douglas, the stellar cast ensures the show is never dry, and at times verges on being a light-hearted romp.
—John Hopewell, Variety, 5 Apr. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'stellar.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Stellar.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/stellar. Accessed 24 Apr. 2024.
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stellar
adjective
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