step
/stɛp/
Word Rarity
Common
Frequency: Zipf frequency 5.13 in modern English
6
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A rest, or one of a set of rests, for the foot in ascending or descending, as a stair, or a rung of a ladder.
noun
The part of a spade, digging stick or similar tool that a digger's foot rests against and presses on when digging; an ear, a foot-rest.
noun
A running board where passengers step to get on and off the bus.
Example Sentences
- "Turning back, then, toward the basement staircase, she began to grope her way through blinding darkness, but had taken only a few uncertain steps when, of a sudden, she stopped short and for a little stood like a stricken thing, quite motionless save that she quaked to her very marrow in the grasp of a great and enervating fear."
- "The breadth of every single step or stair should be never less than one foot."
- "One morning I had been driven to the precarious refuge afforded by the steps of the inn, after rejecting offers from the Celebrity to join him in a variety of amusements. But even here I was not free from interruption, for he was seated on a horse-block below me, playing with a fox terrier."
- "Through the open front door ran Jessamy, down the steps to where Kitto was sitting at the bottom with the pram beside him."
- "He improved step by step, or by steps."
- "The first step is to find a job."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *stapjaną Proto-West Germanic *stappjan Old English stæppan Middle English steppen English step From Middle English steppen, from Old English steppan (“to step, go, proceed, advance”), stepe (“step”), from Proto-West Germanic *stappjan, from Proto-Germanic *stapjaną (“to step”), *stapiz (“step”), from Proto-Indo-European *stebʰ- (“to support, stomp, curse, be amazed”). Cognate with West Frisian stappe (“to step”), North Frisian stape (“to walk, trudge”), Dutch stappen (“to step, walk”), Walloon steper (“to walk away, leave”), German stapfen (“to trudge, stomp, plod”) and further to Slavic Polish stąpać (“to stomp, stamp, step, tread”), Russian ступать (stupatʹ) and Polish stopień (“step, stair, rung, degree”), Russian степень (stepenʹ). Related to stamp, stomp.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: steppen, steppan, *stappjan, *stapjaną, *stebʰ-
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /stɛp/
- British English: /stɛp/
Usage
- Slang
- Intransitive verb
- Transitive verb
- Colloquial
- American usage
- British usage
- Uncountable