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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 That use is no longer current, but today biologists and geologists might use one of these synonyms: stellular, stellate, and stelliform.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
David Weiss, Forbes.com, 9 July 2025
Watts appeared in two campaigns last year for the Rodeo and Bel Air handbags, alongside Isabelle Huppert and Kim Kardashian, who were part of this season’s stellar runway cast.
—Joelle Diderich, Footwear News, 9 July 2025
More Alika Jenner/Getty Images How to Watch Storm vs Sun
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Skylar Diggins was selected to her first All-Star team since 2022, marking her seventh appearance during her stellar WNBA career.
—Ben Verbrugge, MSNBC Newsweek, 9 July 2025
Hubble's image captures the glowing, ionized gas as stellar radiation produces what look like bubbles in the clouds of gas and dust, whereas Webb highlights the clumps and delicate filamentary structures of dust.
—ArsTechnica, 8 July 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Stellar.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/stellar. Accessed 18 Jul. 2025.
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stellar
adjective
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