Stein

How to spell stein

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce stein

What does stein mean?

1. nounA large, often lidded mug used for drinking beer, traditionally made of stoneware or glass.

Stein in a sentence

• The waiter set a foaming stein of lager in front of him.

• She collected a painted ceramic stein from every German town she visited.

Where does stein come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word comes straight from the German word Stein, which literally means 'stone' and is the close cousin of the English word 'stone' itself. In German it was a shortening of compounds such as Steinkrug or Steingut, names for a large drinking tankard made of stoneware, the heavy glazed pottery once used for serving beer. English speakers borrowed the clipped form in the late 1800s, by which point it simply meant a big beer mug, usually with a hinged lid and decorative moulding. The unusual spelling trap is the German 'ei' cluster, which in German is sounded as a long 'i', so 'stein' rhymes with 'wine' rather than with 'seen'. Because the same Germanic root sits behind 'stone', it helps to remember that a stein was originally a stoneware vessel.

How the word is built

• stein (German for stone, short for Steinkrug: stone tankard)