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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 That use is no longer current, but today biologists and geologists might use one of these synonyms: stellular, stellate, and stelliform.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
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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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“Stellar.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/stellar. Accessed 3 May. 2024.
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stellar
adjective
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