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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 That use is no longer current, but today biologists and geologists might use one of these synonyms: stellular, stellate, and stelliform.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
Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 16 Feb. 2026
Dylan Volantis escaped a jam with two consecutive strikeouts to conclude a stellar outing.
—David Eckert, Austin American Statesman, 15 Feb. 2026
Moviegoers also gave it a less-than-stellar B CinemaScore.
—Lindsey Bahr, Chicago Tribune, 15 Feb. 2026
This case suggests that such stars may sometimes fail to explode, depending on how gravity, gas pressure, and shock waves interact in the chaotic final moments of stellar life.
—Rupendra Brahambhatt, Interesting Engineering, 15 Feb. 2026
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Cite this Entry
“Stellar.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/stellar. Accessed 16 Feb. 2026.
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stellar
adjective
