step

Meaning

Noun

1. An advance or movement made from one foot to the other; a pace.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. The button joining a glass's stem to its foot.
5. A distinct part of a process; stage; phase.
6. A running board where passengers step to get on and off the bus.
7. The space passed over by one movement of the foot in walking or running.
8. A small space or distance.
9. A print of the foot; a footstep; a footprint; track.
10. A gait; manner of walking.
11. Proceeding; measure; action; act.
12. (in-plural) A walk; passage.
13. (in-plural) A portable framework of stairs, much used indoors in reaching to a high position.
14. A framing in wood or iron which is intended to receive an upright shaft; specifically, a block of wood, or a solid platform upon the keelson, supporting the heel of the mast.
15. One of a series of offsets, or parts, resembling the steps of stairs, as one of the series of parts of a cone pulley on which the belt runs.
16. A bearing in which the lower extremity of a spindle or a vertical shaft revolves.
17. The interval between two contiguous degrees of the scale.
18. A change of position effected by a motion of translation.
19. A constant difference between consecutive values in a series.
20. (Netherlands, slang) Kick scooter.
21. Stepping (style of dance)

Verb

1. (intransitive) To move the foot in walking; to advance or recede by raising and moving one of the feet to another resting place, or by moving both feet in succession.
2. (intransitive) To walk; to go on foot; especially, to walk a little distance.
3. (intransitive) To walk slowly, gravely, or resolutely.
4. To dance.
5. (figuratively, intransitive) To move mentally; to go in imagination.
6. (transitive) To set, as the foot.
7. (transitive) To fix the foot of (a mast) in its step; to erect.
8. (transitive) To advance a process gradually, one step at a time.
9. (intransitive, slang) To depart.
10. (intransitive, slang) To be confrontational.

Opposite of

step off#Verb

Synonyms

pace

tread

stride

stair

walk

🚶

footstep

stage

measure

gait

move

rung

phase

take a step

go

action

level

footprint

👣

order

gradation

grade

procedure

tread on

degree

foot

🦶

footfall

advance

step on

stairs

stamp

proceed

rank

walking

🚶

act

deed

dance

💃

trample

footmark

movement

tone

travel

steps

sequence

distance

process

detrain

position

descend

deplane

pitch

period

Translations

pas

Schritt

paso

passo

Stufe

marche

étape

passo

treten

andar

🚶

escalón

βήμα

schreiten

marcher

🚶

Pronounced as (IPA)

/stɛp/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: steppen

Inherited from Old English: steppan

Cognate with Western Frisian: stappe

Cognate with Northern Frisian: stape

Cognate with Dutch: stappen

Cognate with Walloon: steper

Cognate with German: stapfen

Cognate with Polish: stąpać

Cognate with Russian: ступать

Cognate with Polish: stopień

Cognate with Russian: степень

In summary

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.