— stelar /stee"leuhr/ , adj.
/stee"lee, steel/ for 1-3; /steel, stee"lee/ for 4 , n. , pl. stelai /stee"luy/ , steles /stee"leez, steelz/ .
1. an upright stone slab or pillar bearing an inscription or design and serving as a monument, marker, or the like.
2. Archit. a prepared surface on the face of a building, a rock, etc., bearing an inscription or the like.
3. (in ancient Rome) a burial stone.
4. Bot. the central cylinder or cylinders of vascular and related tissue in the stem, root, petiole, leaf, etc., of the higher plants.
Also, stela (for defs. 1-3).
[ 1810-20; stéle, akin to histánai to make stand, L stare to STAND ]