stair
/stɛɚ/noun
stair is spelled S-T-A-I-R: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 1.8 times per million words in written English, the 20,629th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “stair vs stare” about 170 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, stair means “A single step in a staircase” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of stair is stairs.
How many letters and syllables are in stair?
| Letters | 5: S-T-A-I-R |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 1.8 times per million words; the 20,629th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like | |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is stair?
Stair appears 1.8 times per million words in written English, the 20,629th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce stair?
- US /stɛɚ/
- UK /stɛə/
- British /stɛː/
Stair has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-stair.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-stare.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with stair
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: stare (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with stair?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as stair from its last stressed vowel (/ɛəɹ/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: sitar, stria, astir, arist.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of stair
- stairs plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does stair mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A single step in a staircase.
- 2
A series of steps; a staircase.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Stair in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | marche , escalier, volée |
| German | Stufe, Treppenstufe , Treppe, Stiege |
| Portuguese | degrau , escada |
| Spanish | peldaño , escalera |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.