stepping stone

1. 1.

   a stone in a marsh or shallow water that can be stepped on in crossing

   Broaderrock
2. 2.

   any means of advancement

   “the job was just a stepping stone on his way to fame and riches”

   Broadermeans

Questions about stepping stone

What does stepping stone mean?

stepping stone means "a stone in a marsh or shallow water that can be stepped on in crossing". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

Is stepping stone a common word?

stepping stone is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.