The difference between Stem and Tail
When used as nouns, stem means the stock of a family, whereas tail means the caudal appendage of an animal that is attached to its posterior and near the anus.
When used as verbs, stem means to remove the stem from, whereas tail means to follow and observe surreptitiously.
Tail is also adjective with the meaning: limited.
check bellow for the other definitions of Stem and Tail
-
Stem as a noun:
The stock of a family; a race or generation of progenitors.
-
Stem as a noun:
A branch of a family.
-
Stem as a noun:
An advanced or leading position; the lookout.
-
Stem as a noun (botany):
The above-ground stalk (technically axis) of a vascular plant, and certain anatomically similar, below-ground organs such as rhizomes, bulbs, tubers, and corms.
-
Stem as a noun:
A slender supporting member of an individual part of a plant such as a flower or a leaf; also, by analogy, the shaft of a feather.
Examples:
"the stem of an apple or a cherry"
-
Stem as a noun:
A narrow part on certain man-made objects, such as a wine glass, a tobacco pipe, a spoon.
-
Stem as a noun (linguistics):
The main part of an uninflected word to which affixes may be added to form inflections of the word. A stem often has a more fundamental root. Systematic conjugations and declensions derive from their stems.
-
Stem as a noun (slang):
A person's leg.
-
Stem as a noun (typography):
A vertical stroke of a letter.
-
Stem as a noun (music):
A vertical stroke marking the length of a note in written music.
-
Stem as a noun (nautical):
The vertical or nearly vertical forward extension of the keel, to which the forward ends of the planks or strakes are attached.
-
Stem as a noun:
Component on a bicycle that connects the handlebars to the bicycle fork
-
Stem as a noun (anatomy):
A part of an anatomic structure considered without its possible branches or ramifications.
-
Stem as a noun (slang):
A crack pipe; or the long, hollow portion of a similar pipe (i.e. meth pipe) resembling a crack pipe.
-
Stem as a noun (chiefly British):
A winder on a clock, watch, or similar mechanism
-
Stem as a verb:
To remove the stem from.
Examples:
"to stem cherries; to stem tobacco leaves"
-
Stem as a verb:
To be caused or derived; to originate.
Examples:
"The current crisis stems from the short-sighted politics of the previous government."
-
Stem as a verb:
To descend in a family line.
-
Stem as a verb:
To direct the stem (of a ship) against; to make headway against.
-
Stem as a verb (obsolete):
To hit with the stem of a ship; to ram.
-
Stem as a verb:
To ram (clay, etc.) into a blasting hole.
-
Stem as a verb (transitive):
To stop, hinder (for instance, a river or blood).
Examples:
"to stem a tide"
-
Stem as a verb (skiing):
To move the feet apart and point the tips of the skis inward in order to slow down the speed or to facilitate a turn.
-
Stem as a noun:
-
Stem as a noun:
-
Tail as a noun (anatomy):
The caudal appendage of an animal that is attached to its posterior and near the anus.
Examples:
"Most primates have a tail and fangs."
-
Tail as a noun:
The tail-end of an object, e.g. the rear of an aircraft's fuselage, containing the tailfin.
-
Tail as a noun:
An object or part of an object resembling a tail in shape, such as the thongs on a cat-o'-nine-tails.
-
Tail as a noun:
The rear structure of an aircraft, the empennage.
-
Tail as a noun:
Specifically, the visible stream of dust and gases blown from a comet by the solar wind.
-
Tail as a noun:
The latter part of a time period or event, or (collectively) persons or objects represented in this part.
-
Tail as a noun (statistics):
The part of a distribution most distant from the mode; as, a long tail.
-
Tail as a noun:
One who surreptitiously follows another.
-
Tail as a noun (cricket):
The last four or five batsmen in the batting order, usually specialist bowlers.
-
Tail as a noun (typography):
The lower loop of the letters in the Roman alphabet, as in g, q or y.
-
Tail as a noun (chiefly, in the plural):
The side of a coin not bearing the head; normally the side on which the monetary value of the coin is indicated; the reverse.
-
Tail as a noun (mathematics):
All the last terms of a sequence, from some term on.
Examples:
"A sequence <math>(a_n)</math> is said to be ''frequently <math>0</math>'' if every tail of the sequence contains <math>0</math>."
-
Tail as a noun (now, _, colloquial, chiefly, _, US):
The buttocks or backside.
-
Tail as a noun (slang):
The penis of a person or animal.
-
Tail as a noun (slang, uncountable):
Sexual intercourse.
Examples:
"I'm gonna get me some tail tonight."
-
Tail as a noun (kayaking):
The stern; the back of the kayak.
-
Tail as a noun:
The back, last, lower, or inferior part of anything.
-
Tail as a noun:
A train or company of attendants; a retinue.
-
Tail as a noun (anatomy):
The distal tendon of a muscle.
-
Tail as a noun:
A downy or feathery appendage of certain achens, formed of the permanent elongated style.
-
Tail as a noun (surgery):
A portion of an incision, at its beginning or end, which does not go through the whole thickness of the skin, and is more painful than a complete incision; called also tailing.
-
Tail as a noun:
One of the strips at the end of a bandage formed by splitting the bandage one or more times.
-
Tail as a noun (nautical):
A rope spliced to the strap of a block, by which it may be lashed to anything.
-
Tail as a noun (music):
The part of a note which runs perpendicularly upward or downward from the head; the stem.
Examples:
"rfquotek Moore (Encyc. of Music)"
-
Tail as a noun (mining):
A tailing.
-
Tail as a noun (architecture):
The bottom or lower portion of a member or part such as a slate or tile.
-
Tail as a noun (colloquial, dated):
A tailcoat.
-
Tail as a verb (transitive):
To follow and observe surreptitiously.
Examples:
"Tail that car!"
-
Tail as a verb (architecture):
To hold by the end; said of a timber when it rests upon a wall or other support; with in or into
-
Tail as a verb (nautical):
To swing with the stern in a certain direction; said of a vessel at anchor.
Examples:
"This vessel tails downstream."
-
Tail as a verb:
To follow or hang to, like a tail; to be attached closely to, as that which can not be evaded.
-
Tail as a verb:
To pull or draw by the tail.
Examples:
"rfquotek Hudibras"
-
Tail as an adjective (legal):
Limited; abridged; reduced; curtailed.
Examples:
"estate tail"
-
Tail as a noun (legal):
Limitation of inheritance to certain heirs.
Examples:
"'tail male — limitation to male heirs"
"'in tail — subject to such a limitation"