Did you know?
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 That use is no longer current, but today biologists and geologists might use one of these synonyms: stellular, stellate, and stelliform.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
Updated September 26, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 26 Sep. 2025
Resy shouted out the wine selection, which focuses on local options from Arizona and California, and items from the small but stellar dining menu, such as the squash risotto (with optional crab) and the half-chicken with black garlic for two.
—Endia Fontanez, AZCentral.com, 26 Sep. 2025
This year’s stellar session turned on European Powerhouses, with top execs from Fremantle, Mediawan, Studio TF1 and Vuelta in attendance.
—John Hopewell, Variety, 26 Sep. 2025
After a stellar campaign with the Vikings in 2024, Darnold suffered a convincing loss to the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC Wild Card round of the playoffs, with the game being played in Arizona because of the wildfires in California.
—Ben Morse, CNN Money, 26 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for stellar
Cite this Entry
“Stellar.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/stellar. Accessed 29 Sep. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
stellar
adjective
Share