Stern Meaning
/stɜːn/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
adjHaving a hardness and severity of nature or manner.
adjGrim and forbidding in appearance.
Sentence Examples
His stern tone and loud voice belied his inner sensitivity and caring nature.
Our teacher is at once stern and kindly.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The strict teacher gave a ____ look when his students misbehaved in class.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Our teacher can be very ____ when students do not follow the rules or finish their homework on time.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English stern, sterne, sturne, from Old English styrne (“stern, grave, strict, austere, hard, severe, cruel”), from Proto-Germanic *sturnijaz (“angry, astonished, shocked”), from Proto-Indo-European *ster- (“rigid, stiff”). Cognate with Scots stern (“bold, courageous, fierce, resolute”), Old High German stornēn (“to be astonished”), Dutch stuurs (“glum, austere”), Swedish stursk (“insolent”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"I haue beene wooed, as I intreat thee now, / Euen by the ſterne, and direfull God of warre, / VVhoſe ſinowie necke in battel nere did bow, / VVho conquers where he comes in euery iarre; […]"
— 1594, [William Shakespeare], Venus and Adonis, 2nd edition, London: […] Richard Field, […], →OCLC, [verse 17], lines [97–100]:
"stern as tutors, and as uncles hard"
— 1693, Decimus Junius Juvenalis, John Dryden, transl., “[The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis.] The First Satyr”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. […] Together with the Satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC:
"Risk is everywhere. From tabloid headlines insisting that coffee causes cancer (yesterday, of course, it cured it) to stern government warnings about alcohol and driving, the world is teeming with goblins."
— 2013 June 22, “Snakes and ladders”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 76:
"these barren rocks, your stern inheritance"
— 1814, William Wordsworth, The Excursion:
"Old Applegate, in the stern, just set and looked at me, and Lord James, amidship, waved both arms and kept hollering for help. I took a couple of everlasting big strokes and managed to grab hold of the skiff's rail, close to the stern."
— 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The strict teacher gave a ____ look when his students misbehaved in class.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Our teacher can be very ____ when students do not follow the rules or finish their homework on time.