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PlainSpell

step

/stɛp/noun, verb

step is spelled S-T-E-P: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 135 times per million words in written English, the 770th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, step means “An advance or movement made from one foot to the other; a pace” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of step is steps.

How many letters and syllables are in step?

Letters4: S-T-E-P
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing135 times per million words; the 770th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is step?

Step appears 135 times per million words in written English, the 770th 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 step?

  • US /stɛp/

Step 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-step.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with step?

No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as step.

Spelled with the same letters in another order: sept, pest, spet.

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 step

  • steps plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • stepping participle, present
  • stepped participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does step mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    An advance or movement made from one foot to the other; a pace.

  2. 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. 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. 4

    The button joining a glass's stem to its foot.

  5. 5

    A distinct part of a process; stage; phase.

    He improved step by step, or by steps.

  6. 6

    A running board where passengers step to get on and off the bus.

    The driver must have a clear view of the step in order to prevent accidents.

  7. 7

    The space passed over by one movement of the foot in walking or running.

    One step is generally about three feet, but may be more or less.

  8. 8

    A small space or distance.

    It is but a step.

  9. 9

    colloquialA stepchild.

  10. 10

    colloquialA stepsibling.

verb

  1. 1

    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. 2

    To don with a stepping action.

    He stepped into his pants.

  3. 3

    To walk; to go (on foot, especially) a little distance.

    Come one, come all. Step right up!

  4. 4

    To walk slowly, gravely, or resolutely.

  5. 5

    To dance.

  6. 6

    To move mentally; to go in imagination.

  7. 7

    To set, as the foot.

  8. 8

    To fix the foot of (a mast) in its step; to erect.

noun

as STEP
  1. 1

    Acronym of striatal-enriched protein tyrosine phosphatase.

  2. 2

    Acronym of serial transverse enteroplasty.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Step in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchbeau-, bel-, belle- (prefix used to indicate that the person being…), pas (pace), marche (one of a set of rests in a stair or ladder), étape (a distinct part of a process; stage; phase)
Germanstief- (prefix used to indicate that the person being…), Schritt (pace), Stufe, Sprosse (one of a set of rests in a stair or ladder), treten, schreiten (intransitive: to move the foot in walking)
Portuguese-asto, -asta (prefix used to indicate that the person being…), passo (pace), degrau (one of a set of rests in a stair or ladder), etapa (a distinct part of a process; stage; phase), estribo (running board)
Spanish-astro, -astra (prefix used to indicate that the person being…), paso (pace), peldaño, escalón (one of a set of rests in a stair or ladder), pisar (intransitive: to move the foot in walking)

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.

Where does step come from?

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”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after step