step

UK/stɛp/US/stɛp/

nounA15 meanings One of the most common words in English · #360 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: steps, stepped, stepping

A step is one movement of a foot — take two steps back, one step at a time. The verb is the same act: she stepped over the puddle, he stepped outside for air.

From there it spreads. The steps of a staircase are the flat parts you put your feet on. A step in a process is one stage of it, which is where step by step comes from. In dancing, the steps are the pattern of movement you learn. And watch your step is a warning about the ground in front of you, or about how you are behaving.

Definitions of step

1nounpaceOne movement of putting a foot down in walking.A1~11%
“Take two steps back from the edge.”
2verbverbTo put a foot down in a new place.A2~2%
“She stepped over the puddle.”
3nounstairOne of the flat surfaces you put your feet on going up or down.A2~2%
“He sat on the top step and waited.”
4nounstageOne of the actions in a process, taken in order.B1~45%
“The first step is to open an account.”
5nounstepOne movement of the feet in a dance.A1~40%
“The teacher showed us the steps one at a time.”

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 21 sentences found in the wild and placed 17 of them on a sense (4 were unclear) — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.

Phrases it lives in

step by step — one stage at a time
watch your step — be careful — of the ground, or of how you behave

Where it comes from

Step has barely moved in fifteen hundred years. Old English stepe sits on Proto-Germanic stapiz, a step, and the noun and the verb have travelled together the entire way.

Middle English
steppen
English, today
step

Built from

stepe · Old English — step
*stapiz · Proto-Germanic — step

From Middle English steppen. 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”), frr stape (“to walk, trudge”), Dutch stappen (“to step, walk”), wa steper (“to walk away, leave”), German stapfen (“to trudge, stomp, plod”) and further to Slavic Polish stąpać (“to stomp, stamp, step, tread”), Russian ступать and Polish stopień (“step, stair, rung, degree”), Russian степень. Related to stamp, stomp.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Dance

Practise this word

step in the wild

The triple jump, sometimes referred to as the hop, step and jump or the hop, skip and jump, is a track and field event, similar to long jump.
Triple jump
The NCAA and NFHS do not allow two steps.
Traveling (basketball)
For example, one of the steps used in the dance practiced by the Orisha Ogun religion features an identical pattern of footwork.
Cha-cha-cha (dance)
The league has operated two divisions in the English football league system, Division One at step 5, and Division Two at step 6.
2020–21 Northern Football League
Metrology of such a surface can confirm and ensure that the required degree of flatness has been achieved as a key step in a manufacturing processes.
Flatness (manufacturing)

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the stepe family

step

step — used about once every 28 pages · #360 · point at the bar for the others

Definitions of step

1nounpaceOne movement of putting a foot down in walking.A1~11%

“Take two steps back from the edge.”

2verbverbTo put a foot down in a new place.A2~2%

“She stepped over the puddle.”

3nounstairOne of the flat surfaces you put your feet on going up or down.A2~2%

“He sat on the top step and waited.”

4nounstageOne of the actions in a process, taken in order.B1~45%

“The first step is to open an account.”

5nounstepOne movement of the feet in a dance.A1~40%

“The teacher showed us the steps one at a time.”

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 21 sentences found in the wild and placed 17 of them on a sense (4 were unclear) — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.