Definition of "stele" [‖Ste•le•stele]

• An upright stone or slab with an inscribed or sculptured surface, used as a monument or as a commemorative tablet in the face of a building. (noun)
• The central core of tissue in the stem or root of a vascular plant, consisting of the xylem and phloem together with supporting tissues. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Gil Stein, director of the Oriental Institute, said the stele was a “rare and most informative discovery in having written evidence together with artistic and archaeological evidence from the Iron Age.”"
• "On the upper part of the stele, which is now one of the treasures of the Louvre, Paris, King Hammurabi salutes, with his right hand reverently upraised, the sun god Shamash, seated on his throne, at the summit of E-sagila, by whom he is being presented with the stylus with which to inscribe the legal code."
• "The monument's imposing shape echoes the sculpted stone slabs, known as stele, that the ancient Mayans used to commemorate battles and funerals or to delineate territory."