Stack Meaning
/stæk/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA pile.
nounA pile., A large pile of hay, grain, straw, or the like, larger at the bottom than the top, sometimes covered with thatch.
Sentence Examples
Only one stack had a real bill on top.
If you stack the dishes up by the sink, I'll do them later.
CEFR Practice Quiz
She helped the librarian ____ the books neatly on the shelf.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
There was a tall ____ of books on the librarian's desk that needed to be put back on the shelves.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English stack, stacke, stakke, stak, from Old Norse stakkr (“a barn; haystack; heap; pile”), from Proto-Germanic *stakkaz (“a barn; rick; haystack”). The data structure sense is a calque of Dutch stapel, introduced by Edsger W. Dijkstra. Cognate with Icelandic stakkur (“stack”), Swedish stack (“stack”), Danish stak (“stack”), Norwegian stakk (“stack”). Related to stake and sauna.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"But corn was housed, and beans were in the stack."
— c. 1790, William Cowper, The Needless Alarm:
"There was againſt euery Pillar, a Stacke of Billets, aboue a Mans Height;"
— 1631, Francis [Bacon], “III. Century. [Experiments in Consort Touching the Reflexion, of Sounds.]”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], 3rd edition, London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC, paragraph 249, page 67:
"She performed appallingly on standard neurological tests, which are, as Sacks perceptively notes, specifically designed to deconstruct the whole person into a stack of 'abilities'."
— 1997, Guy Claxton, Hare brain, tortoise mind: why intelligence increases when you think less:
"“We said, 'Maybe we could come up with a couple of characters doing jokes,'” Correll recalled in 1972. “We had a whole stack of jokes we used to do in these home talent shows"
— 2005, Elizabeth McLeod, The Original Amos 'n' Andy: Freeman Gosden, Charles Correll and the 1928-1943 Radio Serial, McFarland, →ISBN, page 26:
"With just the turn of a shoulder she indicated the water front, where, at the end of the dock on which they stood, lay the good ship, Mount Vernon, river packet, the black smoke already pouring from her stacks."
— 1910, Emerson Hough, “A Lady in Company”, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
She helped the librarian ____ the books neatly on the shelf.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
There was a tall ____ of books on the librarian's desk that needed to be put back on the shelves.