STL

Abbreviation with 6 meanings

STL
Stands forSt. Louis
Meanings6
CategoriesGeography & Places, Transportation & Travel, Sports, Technology & Computing, Education & Academia

STL has six meanings. The most common are St. Louis (city and neighborhood) and St. Louis Lambert International Airport (airport code); it can also stand for Steals, Stereolithography, Standard Template Library and Sacrae Theologiae Licentiatus (Licentiate in Sacred Theology).

Meanings of STL at a glance

#STL stands forContext
1St. LouisGeography & Places › City and Neighborhood
2St. Louis Lambert International AirportTransportation & Travel › Airport Code
3StealsSports › Basketball
4StereolithographyTechnology & Computing › File Format
5Standard Template LibraryTechnology & Computing › Programming
6Sacrae Theologiae Licentiatus (Licentiate in Sacred Theology)Education & Academia › Degree

1. St. Louis

Geography & Places · City and Neighborhood Abbreviations

Major city on the Mississippi River in Missouri, known for the 630-foot Gateway Arch, completed in 1965. St. Louis hosted the 1904 World's Fair and the first Olympic Games held in the United States.

Example: The STL food scene is famous for toasted ravioli and gooey butter cake.

STL is also the airport code for St. Louis Lambert International. The city has been independent of St. Louis County since 1876, an unusual split. Locals call the region the Lou.

2. St. Louis Lambert International Airport

Transportation & Travel · Airport Code Abbreviations

Serving St. Louis, Missouri, from a site about 14 miles northwest of downtown, this airport is known for its 1956 terminal with soaring concrete domes designed by Minoru Yamasaki, which influenced later airport architecture.

Example: STL is a quick MetroLink ride from downtown and the stadium.

ICAO code KSTL. Named for Albert Bond Lambert, an aviation pioneer who bought the original field and financed Charles Lindbergh's 1927 transatlantic flight. STL was a major hub for TWA, and later for American after it bought TWA in 2001, before American cut the hub back. The code is also used as a nickname for the city.

3. Steals

Sports · Basketball Abbreviations

Number of times a defender takes the ball from an opponent by intercepting a pass or knocking it away, causing a turnover. STL is a standard box-score column.

Example: The guard had 4 STL, two of them leading to breakaway dunks.

Kendall Gill and Larry Kenon share the NBA single-game record with 11 steals. Steals and blocks combined are sometimes called "stocks" by fans and fantasy players.

4. Stereolithography

Technology & Computing · File Format Abbreviations

3D model format that describes a surface as a mesh of triangles, the standard file for 3D printing. Slicer software converts an STL into printer instructions.

Example: Download the STL from the project page and load it into the slicer to generate the G-code.

3D Systems created STL in 1987 for its stereolithography printers, a technology invented by its founder Chuck Hull. The format stores only geometry, with no color, materials or units, so models are assumed to be in millimeters. Backronyms include "Standard Triangle Language" and "Standard Tessellation Language". The newer 3MF format addresses its limitations.

5. Standard Template Library

Technology & Computing · Programming Abbreviations

A C++ library of generic containers, algorithms and iterators, such as vector, map, sort and find, that work with any data type through templates. Most of it became part of the C++ standard library.

Example: Use an STL unordered_map instead of writing your own hash table.

Designed mainly by Alexander Stepanov and Meng Lee at Hewlett-Packard and accepted into the C++ standard in 1994. Strictly, the name refers to the original library, but developers use it loosely for the container and algorithm parts of the standard library. In 3D printing STL is a file format, and in sports and travel it abbreviates St. Louis.

6. Sacrae Theologiae Licentiatus (Licentiate in Sacred Theology)

Education & Academia · Degree Abbreviations

Second-cycle pontifical degree in Catholic theology, usually two years after the STB, with specialization in an area such as moral, dogmatic or biblical theology and a thesis. It qualifies holders to teach theology in Catholic seminaries.

Example: Father Daniel earned his STL in moral theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.

Written S.T.L. The licentiate has no exact equivalent in American secular education; it sits between a master's degree and a doctorate. Canon law requires seminary teachers of theology to hold a doctorate or licentiate from a university or faculty recognized by the Holy See.

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More airport code abbreviations

  • SJU – Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport
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  • SMF – Sacramento International Airport
  • SNA – John Wayne Airport
  • STN – London Stansted Airport
  • SYD – Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport
  • TLV – Ben Gurion Airport
  • TPA – Tampa International Airport

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