in stages

1. 1.

   a little bit at a time

   “the research structure has developed piecemeal”

   Synonymspiecemeallittle by littlebit by bit

Questions about in stages

What does in stages mean?

in stages means "a little bit at a time".

What is another word for in stages?

Close synonyms include piecemeal, little by little, bit by bit. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is in stages a common word?

in stages is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.