Sometimes stem means to originate; other times it means to stop something at its source. You stem the flow of a river, but you can also observe that a river’s flow stems from a spring.

Pronunciation: /stem/
English Description: the long thin part of a plant, from which leaves, flowers, or fruit grow
Chinese Translation: 茎(Jing4); 起源于......(Qi3 Yuan2 Yu2)
Spanish Translation: tallo
STORY: To remember stem’s meaning think of the stem of a plant––it’s where a plant begins but also where you pluck it from the ground. Once teachers realized that the students’ anger stemmed from the overload of homework, they stemmed the rebellion’s tide.

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

He perceived it as an “orchestrated move” by the D.A.’s office stemming from anger over the Dekraai hearings.
The unpaid wages stem from July-September, so Parma could face more sanctions as salaries have not been paid since then either.