step – English noun declension

English noun forms of step

Noun: step
Singularstep
Pluralsteps

Sample 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. [1914 November, Louis Joseph Vance, “An Outsider […]”, in Munsey’s Magazine, volume LIII, number II, New York, N.Y.: The Frank A[ndrew] Munsey Company, […], published 1915, →OCLC, chapter III (Accessory After the Fact), page 382, column 1:]
  • The breadth of every single step or stair should be never less than one foot. [1624, Sir Henry Wotton, The Elements Of Architecture:]
  • 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. [1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:]
  • Through the open front door ran Jessamy, down the steps to where Kitto was sitting at the bottom with the pram beside him. [1967, Barbara Sleigh, Jessamy, Sevenoaks, Kent: Bloomsbury, published 1993, →ISBN, page 122:]
  • He improved step by step, or by steps.
  • The first step is to find a job.
  • The driver must have a clear view of the step in order to prevent accidents.
  • One step is generally about three feet, but may be more or less.
  • To derive two or three general principles of motion from phenomena, and afterwards to tell us how the properties and actions of all corporeal things follow from those manifest principles, would be a very great step in philosophy. [1704, I[saac] N[ewton], “(please specify |book=1 to 3)”, in Opticks: Or, A Treatise of the Reflexions, Refractions, Inflexions and Colours of Light. […], London: […] Sam[uel] Smith, and Benj[amin] Walford, printers to the Royal Society, […], →OCLC:]
  • It is but a step.
  • The approach of a man is often known by his step.
  • Warwick passed through one of the wide brick arches and traversed the building with a leisurely step. [1900, Charles W[addell] Chesnutt, chapter I, in The House Behind the Cedars, Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company […], →OCLC:]
  • The reputation of a man depends on the first steps he makes in the world. [1717, Alexander Pope, Preface to his collection of poems:]
  • Beware of desperate steps. The darkest day, Live till to-morrow, will have passed away. [c. 1792, William Cowper, The Needless Alarm:]
  • I have lately taken steps[…]to relieve the old gentleman's distresses. [1879, George Washington Cable, Old Creole Days:]
  • Moon has also requested that government officials take additional steps to help fight pollution, his spokesman said. [2019, VOA Learning English (public domain)]
  • Conduct my steps to find the fatal tree. [1697, Virgil, “(please specify the book number)”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:]
  • Usage note: The word tone is often used as the name of this interval; but there is evident incongruity in using tone for indicating the interval between tones. As the word scale is derived from the Italian scala, a ladder, the intervals may well be called steps.
  • A change of position effected by a motion of translation will be called a step. [1878, William Kingdon Clifford, Elements of Dynamic: An Introduction to the Study of Motion:]
  • Printing from 0 to 9 with a step of 3 will display 0, 3, 6 and 9.

Etymology

1. Etymology tree
2. Proto-Germanic *stapjaną
3. Proto-West Germanic *stappjan
4. Old English stæppan
5. Middle English steppen
6. English step
7. 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”).
8. 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. See: Old English Nouns 'steppan', German Nouns 'stapfen', Polish Nouns 'stopień', Russian Nouns 'степень'.

Verbs referencing "step"

Dutch Nouns step, Romanian Nouns step, Dutch Nouns stap, Finnish Nouns steppi, Old Norse Nouns Ætternisstapi, Old Norse Nouns stapi.