Stern

See also: stern, stern-, and Štern

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

  • As a German and Jewish surname, from the noun Stern (star). This was also borrowed into various Slavic languages such as Serbo-Crotian and Slovenian.
  • As an English surname, from the adjective stern.

Proper noun

Stern (plural Sterns)

  1. A surname.

Derived terms

Anagrams

French

Etymology

Borrowed from German Stern.

Proper noun

Stern ?

  1. a surname from German

German

Etymology

From Middle High German stërne, from Old High German sterno, from Proto-West Germanic *sternō, from Proto-Germanic *sternǭ, *sternô, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂stḗr.

See also Dutch ster (star), Old English steorra (star) (Modern English star), Danish stjerne (star), Swedish stjärna (star), Icelandic stjarna (star), Gothic 𐍃𐍄𐌰𐌹𐍂𐌽𐍉 (stairnō); also Latin stēlla (star), Ancient Greek ἀστήρ (astḗr, star) and Sanskrit तारा (tārā, star). Doublet of Aster and Star.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ʃtɛʁn/, [ʃtɛʁn], [ʃtɛɐ̯n]
  • Rhymes: -ɛʁn
  • Audio:(file)
  • Audio:(file)

Noun

Stern m (strong, genitive Sternes or Sterns, plural Sterne, diminutive Sternchen n or Sternlein n)

  1. a star; a small luminous dot that can be seen on the night sky
    • 1924, Friedrich Bernhard Störzner, Das weiße Männchen auf dem Kirchberge, in: Reinhardtswalder Sagenbüchlein, Buchhandlung Otto Schmidt, page 11:
      Droben am Himmel funkelten die Sterne in seltener Pracht.
      Up in the sky the stars sparkled in unusual magnificence.
    • 1919, Aleksey Remizov, translated by Arthur Luther, Legenden und Geschichten[1] (fiction), Leipzig: Kurt Wolff, →ISBN:
      Und die Sterne gingen mit dem nächtlichen Dunkel, der Morgen graute, […]
      And the stars went away with the dark of the night, the morning dawned, […]
    Morgensternmorning star
    Barnards SternBarnard's Star
  2. (astronomy) a star; the actual celestial body
    Synonyms: Gestirn n, Sonne f
  3. (geometry, heraldry) a star, a mullet, or anything that resembles such an object
    fünfzackiger Sternfive-pointed star
    DavidsternStar of David
    Sternenbannerstars and stripes (the flag of the USA)
    NATO-SternNATO star
    der rote Sternthe red star
  4. a star; symbol used as a rating, e.g. for hotels, movies, etc.
    Fünf-Sterne-Hotelfive-star hotel
  5. (printing, often Sternchen) an asterisk (*)
    Synonym: Asterisk m
    • 2007, Klaus M. Rodewig, Amin Negm-Awad, Objective-C und Cocoa: Programmieren unter Apple Mac OS X, 2nd edition, page 83:
      Bei der Deklaration eines Zeigers kann der Stern (Asterisk) sowohl beim Namen der Variablen (int *zahl) als auch beim Datentyp (int* zahl) stehen.
      (please add an English translation of this quotation)
  6. (figuratively, chiefly Sternchen) a star, starlet, celebrity, something or someone popular
    Synonym: Star m
    ein Schlagerstern(chen)a schlager-music starlet
  7. A term of endearment.
  8. (meteorology) a stellar crystal, a snow crystal possessing the shape of a star

Usage notes

  • In the diminutive, the predominant contemporary usage is to employ Sternlein in the sense of “luminous dot” and Sternchen in all other senses.

Declension

Hypernyms

Hyponyms

Derived terms

See also

Proper noun

Stern m or f (proper noun, surname, masculine genitive Sterns or (with an article) Stern, feminine genitive Stern, plural Sterns)

  1. a surname

Further reading

Hunsrik

Etymology

From Middle High German stërne, from Old High German sterno.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ʃtɛn/

Noun

Stern m (plural Stern, diminutive Sternche)

  1. star

Noun

Stern f (plural Sterne)

  1. forehead

Further reading

Polish

Etymology

Borrowed from German Stern.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈstɛrn/
  • Rhymes: -ɛrn
  • Syllabification: Stern

Proper noun

Stern m pers

  1. a male surname from German

Declension

Proper noun

Stern f (indeclinable)

  1. a female surname from German

Further reading

  • Stern in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowed from German Stern.

Proper noun

Stern m or f by sense

  1. a surname from German

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from German Stern.

Proper noun

Stern m or f by sense

  1. a surname from German