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Glite Dictionary
🚢 Back of a ship 😠 Strict or serious 🍑 The buttocks 🏚️ Plain and severe
stern

stern

85 5.8
The back part of a ship or boat
  • noun
  • /stɜrn/
translation icon : popa
  • I'm hunched in the stern of a motorboat that's skimming across the choppy waters of Alcova Reservoir.
  • stern of a ship
  • stern of a boat
  • stem to stern

And as it's going, you are somehow able to metaphorically stand on the stern, the back of the boat, and look down into the water.

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Examples

  • All they could see of Bobber was the dim glow of her stern lamps on their starboard bow.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • Then, at 2:20 a.m., the stern settled back into the water.

    Academic text (2012)

  • The white float ball is at the stern of the boat.

    Open Water (2004)

  • Let go your stern ropes.

    S.O.S. Titanic (1980)

  • The stern is intact on a flat and level surface.

    Gangster Story (1959)

  • Two of the women, on the raised deck at the stern, were obviously not ordinary crew.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • - Distribute them from stem to stern.

    The Spy in Black (1939)

  • Boasting a square stern, the ship weighed twenty tons and carried a crew of three.

    Academic text (2007)

  • If I'd hit the rock with the stern of the boat, it would undoubtedly have taken the whole jet unit off, and I would have lost all control of the boat.

    Ocean to Sky (2019)

  • The captain ordered the crew to secure the ropes at the stern of the ship.

Synonyms

tail
vsstern
421 1.0

The rear part of an animal or object that sticks out at the end

is limited to ships and boats, not to animals or other objects
quarter
vsstern
  • Specialized
35 8.8

The area at the back of a ship

is the actual rearmost part rather than the side rear sections
after part
vsstern
  • Specialized
9.1

The back part of a ship

includes both ships and smaller boats rather than ships only

Idioms

from stem to stern
  • Informal
1 7.7

Completely through the whole thing from one end to the other

stern but fair
  • Informal
1 4.6

Strict and just when dealing with people

Compounds

stern warning
5 3.4

A firm, serious statement that tells someone to stop wrong or dangerous behavior

stern look
2 3.1

A serious face that shows someone is unhappy or strict

stern chaser
  • Archaic
1 9.9

A gun at the back of a ship used to fire at a chasing ship

How Forward

bow
123 4.9
forebridge
  • Specialized
9.5
forecastle
  • Specialized
1 9.9
midship
  • Specialized
6.2
stern
85 5.8

Surface Forms

stern singular
sterns plural

Etymology

Stern for the back of a ship comes from an old word like styern and is linked to the idea of steer, because the rear is where people watch or control the ship's direction. So the stern is the ship's 'back'.