stell

Stell is not a common standalone term in English; rather, stell- is a productive combining form borrowed from Latin stella meaning star. It appears in many words across science and everyday language to convey a relation to stars or star-shaped forms. In astronomy and everyday usage, stellar means relating to stars or exceptionally good. The morphological root also yields forms such as stellate, stelliform, and stellation. Stellate describes objects with a star-like shape or projections; stelliform means star-shaped in outline; stellation refers to a process of extending a polygon or polyhedron to create a star-shaped figure, or in biology to describe star-shaped arrangements of cells or tissues.

In biology, stellate shapes occur in cells such as stellate ganglion neurons or stellate cells, where the cell body gives off multiple processes resembling a star. In botany, stellate hairs are star-shaped trichomes. In crystallography, stellate arrangements describe crystals forming radiating star-like patterns.

Outside of morphology, Stell may be encountered as a surname or place name in some languages. As a standalone English word, stell is not commonly used; it mainly appears as part of larger terms. The pronunciation of the combining form is typically /ˈstɛl-/ in English when preceding a root starting with a vowel or consonant.