,| 1. | firm, strict, or uncompromising: stern discipline. |
| 2. | hard, harsh, or severe: a stern reprimand. |
| 3. | rigorous or austere; of an unpleasantly serious character: stern times. |
| 4. | grim or forbidding in aspect: a stern face. |

| var. of sterno- before a vowel: sternite. |
| a combining form representing sternum in compound words: sternocostal. |
stern 1 (stûrn) adj. stern·er, stern·est
[Middle English sterne, from Old English styrne; see ster-1 in Indo-European roots.] stern'ly adv., stern'ness n. |
| Stern, Otto 1888-1969. German-born American physicist. He won a 1943 Nobel Prize for detecting the magnetic movements of atomic particles. |
stern
|
sterno- or stern-
pref.
Sternum: sternocostal.