Definitions for Sterling
ˈstɜr lɪŋster·ling

Princeton's WordNetRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. sterlingadjective

   British money; especially the pound sterling as the basic monetary unit of the UK

2. greatest, sterling(a), superlativeadjective

   highest in quality

WiktionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. sterlingnoun

   the currency of the United Kingdom; especially the pound

2. sterlingnoun

   former British gold or silver coinage of a standard fineness: for gold 0.91666 and for silver 0.925.

3. sterlingnoun

   sterling silver, or articles made from this material

4. sterlingadjective

   of, or relating to British currency, or the former British coinage

5. sterlingadjective

   of, relating to, or made from sterling silver

6. sterlingadjective

   high quality

7. Sterlingnoun

   A Scottish surname, variant of Stirling.

8. Sterlingnoun

   An English surname, thought to be a variant of Starling.

9. Sterlingnoun

   transferred from the surnames.

Samuel Johnson's DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Sterlingadjective

   Etymology: Of this word many derivations have been offered; the most probable of which is that offered by William Camden, who derives it from the Easterlings, who were employed as coiners.

   1. An epithet by which genuine English money is discriminated.

   The king’s treasure of store, that he left at his death, amounted unto eighteen hundred thousand pounds sterling. Francis Bacon, Henry VII.

   Several of them would rather chuse to count out a sum in sesterces than in pounds sterling. Addison.

   2. Genuine; having past the test.

   There is not one single witty phrase in this collection, which hath not received the stamp and approbation of one hundred years: he may therefore be secure to find them all genuine, sterling, and authentick. Jonathan Swift, Polite Conversation.

2. Sterlingnoun

   Etymology: sterlingum, low Lat. from the adjective.

   1. English coin; money.

   This visionary various projects tries,
   And knows that to be rich is to be wise:
   By useful observation he can tell
   The sacred charms that in true sterling dwell;
   How gold makes a patrician of a slave,
   A dwarf an Atlas, a Thersites brave. Samuel Garth.

   Great name, which in our rolls recorded stands,
   Leads honours, and protects the learned bands,
   Accept this offering to thy bounty due,
   And Roman wealth in English sterling view. Charles Arbuthnot.

   2. Standard rate.

Webster DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Sterlingnoun

   same as Starling, 3

2. Sterlingnoun

   any English coin of standard value; coined money

3. Sterlingnoun

   a certain standard of quality or value for money

4. Sterlingadjective

   belonging to, or relating to, the standard British money of account, or the British coinage; as, a pound sterling; a shilling sterling; a penny sterling; -- now chiefly applied to the lawful money of England; but sterling cost, sterling value, are used

5. Sterlingadjective

   genuine; pure; of excellent quality; conforming to the highest standard; of full value; as, a work of sterling merit; a man of sterling good sense

6. Etymology: [OE. sterlynge, starling, for easterling, LL. esterlingus, probably from Easterling, once the popular name of German trades in England, whose money was of the purest quality: cf. MHG. sterlink a certain coin. Cf. East. Certain merchants of Norwaie, Denmarke, and of others those parties, called Ostomanni, or (as in our vulgar language we tearme them), easterlings, because they lie east in respect of us. Holinshed. In the time of . . . King Richard the First, monie coined in the east parts of Germanie began to be of especiall request in England for the puritie thereof, and was called Easterling monie, as all inhabitants of those parts were called Easterlings, and shortly after some of that countrie, skillful in mint matters and allaies, were sent for into this realme to bring the coine to perfection; which since that time was called of them sterling, for Easterling. Camden. Four thousand pound of sterlings. R. of Gloucester.]

FreebaseRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Sterling

   Sterling, Virginia is a census-designated place in Loudoun County, Virginia. The population as of the 2010 Census was 27,822. It is located northwest of Herndon, east of Ashburn, and west of Great Falls, and includes part of Dulles International Airport and the former AOL corporate headquarters. Sterling is also home to the National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office, as well as the Sterling Field Support Center, the National Weather Service test, research, and evaluation center for weather instruments.

Chambers 20th Century DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Sterling

   stėr′ling, adj. a designation of British money—pure, genuine, of good quality—also generally, of value or excellence, authoritative. [Orig. the name of a penny; prob. from the Hanse merchants or Easterlings ('men from the east'), from North Germany, who had probably the privilege of coining money in England in the 13th century.]

Surnames Frequency by Census RecordsRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. STERLING

   According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Sterling is ranked #1362 in terms of the most common surnames in America.
   
   The Sterling surname appeared 25,894 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 9 would have the surname Sterling.
   
   63.6% or 16,471 total occurrences were White.
   28.4% or 7,377 total occurrences were Black.
   4.3% or 1,126 total occurrences were of Hispanic origin.
   2.3% or 616 total occurrences were of two or more races.
   0.6% or 179 total occurrences were Asian.
   0.4% or 127 total occurrences were American Indian or Alaskan Native.

British National Corpus

1. Nouns Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'Sterling' in Nouns Frequency: #2158

Anagrams for Sterling »

1. ringlets

How to pronounce Sterling?

1. Alex

   US English

   David

   US English

   Mark

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Libby

   British

   Mia

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Hayley

   Australian

   Natasha

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

   Priya

   Indian

   Neerja

   Indian

   Zira

   US English

   Oliver

   British

   Wendy

   British

   Fred

   US English

   Tessa

   South African

How to say Sterling in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of Sterling in Chaldean Numerology is: 8

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of Sterling in Pythagorean Numerology is: 5

Examples of Sterling in a Sentence

1. Fran Lebowitz:

   You can't go around hoping that most people have sterling moral characters. The most you can hope for is that people will pretend that they do.

2. Nicholas Veron:

   In big currency areas - including sterling, yen, dollar - the central bank has a significant hold on trading in the domestic currency, the euro zone is an outlier and that is supported by the EU framework but if that is no longer there, this outlier status might not be sustainable.

3. Jake Higdon:

   There's not a sterling example.

4. Gareth Southgate:

   England fans were singing the whole game but once it started happening everyone was shushing each other so when [Raheem] Sterling and [Tyrone] Mings got on the ball we could hear, it was really strange because everyone was on their phones, trying to work out what was going on.

5. David Marcus:

   Instead of having a synthetic unit ... we could have a series of stablecoins, a dollar stablecoin, a euro stablecoin, a sterling pound stable coin, etc.

Popularity rank by frequency of use