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say it: step
step is a noun and verb meaning "any maneuver made as part of progress toward a goal". It carries 21 recorded senses.
any maneuver made as part of progress toward a goal
“the situation called for strong measures”
“the police took steps to reduce crime”
the distance covered by a step
“he stepped off ten paces from the old tree and began to dig”
a short distance
“it's only a step to the drugstore”
a musical interval of two semitones
a mark of a foot or shoe on a surface
“the police made casts of the footprints in the soft earth outside the window”
a solid block joined to the beams in which the heel of a ship's mast or capstan is fixed
a sequence of foot movements that make up a particular dance
“he taught them the waltz step”
cause (a computer) to execute a single command
walk a short distance to a specified place or in a specified manner
“step over to the blackboard”
place (a ship's mast) in its step
move or proceed as if by steps into a new situation
“She stepped into a life of luxury”
“he won't step into his father's footsteps”
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for step come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.