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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 That use is no longer current, but today biologists and geologists might use one of these synonyms: stellular, stellate, and stelliform.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
Anthony Wood, Space.com, 24 Oct. 2025
The 27-year-old was stellar, shooting 15-of-31 from the field, and recording eight rebounds, five assists, one block and two steals in 45 minutes of action.
—Ricardo Klein, MSNBC Newsweek, 24 Oct. 2025
The first 20 minutes or so is stellar at shredding your nerves, but each subsequent iteration of the scenario – often replaying the same interactions, just from a different point of view – feels less urgent.
—Brian Truitt, USA Today, 23 Oct. 2025
Marring the otherwise pretty stellar opening days of the just started current NBA season, as Smith pointed out on First Take today, the arrests saw the league put Billups and Rozier, who was in uniform for the Heats’ October 22 game against the Orlando Magic, on immediate leave.
—Dominic Patten, Deadline, 23 Oct. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Stellar.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/stellar. Accessed 26 Oct. 2025.
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stellar
adjective
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