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Stella, the Latin word for "star," shines brightly in the word constellation, but stella words have been favored by scientists to describe earthly things as much as heavenly bodies. Stellar was once used to mean "star-shaped." That use is no longer current, but today biologists and geologists might use one of these synonyms: stellular, stellate, and stelliform. Poets, too, have looked to stella. John Milton used stellar in its infancy when he wrote in Paradise Lost "these soft fires … shed down their stellar virtue." Stellar shot into its leading role as a synonym of star (as when we say "stellar pupil") in the late 1800s.
Examples of stellar in a Sentence
Pamela McClintock, HollywoodReporter, 23 May 2026
Shoppers report stellar results.
—Sophie Wirt, InStyle, 22 May 2026
Doing so was exciting, cool, and held the promise of big bucks and a stellar career.
—Lance Eliot, Forbes.com, 22 May 2026
The eye-catching stellar system of V838 Monocerotis is an example of such an event.
—Phil Plait, Scientific American, 22 May 2026
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Cite this Entry
“Stellar.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/stellar. Accessed 24 May. 2026.
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stellar
adjective
