Meanings
nounstemma (plural stemmata or stemmas)
plural stemmata · plural stemmas
- A family tree or recorded genealogy.
Where so few dates are known, an authoritative stemma is out of the question
1941, Sterling Dow, “A Family of Sculptors from Tyre”, in Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, →DOI, page 359 - In the study of stemmatics, a diagram showing the relationship of a text to its manuscripts.
- One of the types of simple eyes in arthropods.
Synonyms & antonyms
nounthe hereditary derivation of an individual
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Broader
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Ancient Greekστέμμα
- Latinstemma
- Englishstemma
Borrowed from Latin stemma, from Ancient Greek στέμμα (stémma).
More words from Latin, Ancient Greek
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
APA
stemma. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/stemma
MLA
“stemma.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/stemma. Accessed November 2, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “stemma,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/stemma.
Source: stemma on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.