Stem vs. Culm — What's the Difference?

The main ascending part of a plant; a stalk or trunk.

The stem of a grass or similar plant.

A slender stalk supporting or connecting another plant part, such as a leaf or flower.

Waste from anthracite coal mines, consisting of fine coal, coal dust, and dirt.

A banana stalk bearing several bunches of bananas.

Carboniferous shale.

The tube of a tobacco pipe.

Inferior anthracite coal.

The slender upright support of a wineglass or goblet.

Waste coal, used as a poor quality fuel; slack.

The small projecting shaft with an expanded crown by which a watch is wound.

Anthracite, especially when found in small masses

The rounded rod in the center of certain locks about which the key fits and is turned.

(botany) the stem of a plant, especially of grass or sedge

The shaft of a feather or hair.

The stalk or stem of grain and grasses (including the bamboo), jointed and usually hollow.

The upright stroke of a typeface or letter.

Mineral coal that is not bituminous; anthracite, especially when found in small masses.

(Music) The vertical line extending from the head of a note.

Stem of plants of the Gramineae

The main line of descent of a family.

(Linguistics) The main part of a word to which affixes are added.

(Nautical) The curved upright beam at the fore of a vessel into which the hull timbers are scarfed to form the prow.

The tubular glass structure mounting the filament or electrodes in an incandescent bulb or vacuum tube.

To have or take origin or descent

To remove the stem of

To provide with a stem

To make headway against (a tide or current, for example).

To stop or stanch (a flow)

To restrain or stop

To plug or tamp (a blast hole, for example).

(Sports) To turn (a ski, usually the uphill ski) by moving the heel outward.

To stem a ski or both skis, as in making a turn.

The stock of a family; a race or generation of progenitors.

A branch of a family.

An advanced or leading position; the lookout.

(botany) The above-ground stalk (technically axis) of a vascular plant, and certain anatomically similar, below-ground organs such as rhizomes, bulbs, tubers, and corms.

A slender supporting member of an individual part of a plant such as a flower or a leaf; also, by analogy, the shaft of a feather.

A narrow part on certain man-made objects, such as a wine glass, a tobacco pipe, a spoon.

(linguistics) The main part of an uninflected word to which affixes may be added to form inflections of the word. A stem often has a more fundamental root. Systematic conjugations and declensions derive from their stems.

(slang) A person's leg.

(slang) The penis.

(typography) A vertical stroke of a letter.

(music) A vertical stroke marking the length of a note in written music.

(music) A premixed portion of a track for use in audio mastering and remixing.

(nautical) The vertical or nearly vertical forward extension of the keel, to which the forward ends of the planks or strakes are attached.

(cycling) A component on a bicycle that connects the handlebars to the bicycle fork.

(anatomy) A part of an anatomic structure considered without its possible branches or ramifications.

(slang) A crack pipe; or the long, hollow portion of a similar pipe (i.e. meth pipe) resembling a crack pipe.

A winder on a clock, watch, or similar mechanism.

Alternative form of STEM

A lesbian, chiefly African-American, exhibiting both stud and femme traits.

To remove the stem from.

To be caused or derived; to originate.

To descend in a family line.

To direct the stem (of a ship) against; to make headway against.

(obsolete) To hit with the stem of a ship; to ram.

To ram (clay, etc.) into a blasting hole.

(transitive) To stop, hinder (for instance, a river or blood).

(skiing) To move the feet apart and point the tips of the skis inward in order to slow down the speed or to facilitate a turn.

To gleam.

To remove the stem or stems from; as, to stem cherries; to remove the stem and its appendages (ribs and veins) from; as, to stem tobacco leaves.

To ram, as clay, into a blasting hole.

To oppose or cut with, or as with, the stem of a vessel; to resist, or make progress against; to stop or check the flow of, as a current.

To move forward against an obstacle, as a vessel against a current.

A gleam of light; flame.

The principal body of a tree, shrub, or plant, of any kind; the main stock; the part which supports the branches or the head or top.

A little branch which connects a fruit, flower, or leaf with a main branch; a peduncle, pedicel, or petiole; as, the stem of an apple or a cherry.

The stock of a family; a race or generation of progenitors.

A branch of a family.

A curved piece of timber to which the two sides of a ship are united at the fore end. The lower end of it is scarfed to the keel, and the bowsprit rests upon its upper end. Hence, the forward part of a vessel; the bow.

Fig.: An advanced or leading position; the lookout.

Anything resembling a stem or stalk; as, the stem of a tobacco pipe; the stem of a watch case, or that part to which the ring, by which it is suspended, is attached.

That part of a plant which bears leaves, or rudiments of leaves, whether rising above ground or wholly subterranean.

The entire central axis of a feather.

The short perpendicular line added to the body of a note; the tail of a crotchet, quaver, semiquaver, etc.

The part of an inflected word which remains unchanged (except by euphonic variations) throughout a given inflection; theme; base.

(linguistics) the form of a word after all affixes are removed;

A slender or elongated structure that supports a plant or fungus or a plant part or plant organ

Cylinder forming a long narrow part of something

The tube of a tobacco pipe

Front part of a vessel or aircraft;

A turn made in skiing; the back of one ski is forced outward and the other ski is brought parallel to it

Grow out of, have roots in, originate in;

Cause to point inward;

Stop the flow of a liquid;

Remove the stem from;