1. A device for removing stems from fruit (as from grapes or apples)
   "The winery used a stemmer to process the grapes before crushing"
    
2. A worker who strips the stems from moistened tobacco leaves and binds the leaves together into books
   "The stemmer carefully prepared the tobacco leaves for processing";
   - stripper, sprigger
    
3. A worker who makes or applies stems for artificial flowers
   "The stemmer carefully attached the wire stems to the silk petals"
    
4. An algorithm for removing inflectional and derivational endings in order to reduce word forms to a common stem
   "The search engine used a stemmer to improve its results";
   - stemming algorithm
    
5. A miner's tamping bar for ramming packing in over a blasting charge
   "The miner carefully used the stemmer to pack the explosives"

Derived forms: stemmers

Type of: algorithm, algorithmic program, algorithmic rule, device, tamp, tamper, tamping bar, worker

Encyclopedia: Stemmer