stair
- 01 A2 Elementary
one of the steps in a set of stairs.
a single step in a staircase or flight of steps.
Simple“She sat down on the bottom stair to tie her shoelaces before going outside.”
In context“The old wooden stair creaked loudly under his weight, alerting everyone in the house to his presence.”
UsageUsually refers to the physical structure of one step.
- 02 A2 Elementary
a series of steps inside a building; a staircase.
a flight of steps or a staircase; almost exclusively used in the plural form 'stairs' in this sense.
Simple“I was out of breath after climbing three flights of stairs to the office.”
In context“The grand marble stairs swept up from the foyer, branching into two separate galleries on the mezzanine level.”
UsageCommonly used in the plural 'stairs' to refer to the entire structure.
Teacher's tipRemind students that 'stairs' is the standard way to refer to the way up or down, while 'staircase' is more formal or descriptive.
PitfallI went up the stair to my bedroom. I went up the stairs to my bedroom.When talking about the whole set of steps, always use the plural 'stairs'.
From Middle English steire, staire, stayre, stayer, steir, steyre, steyer, from Old English stǣġer (“stair, staircase”), from Proto-West Germanic staigri, from Proto-Germanic staigriz (“stairs, scaffolding”), from Proto-Indo-European *steygʰ- (“to walk, proceed, march, climb”). Cognate with Dutch steiger (“a stair, step, wharf, pier, scaffolding”), Middle Low German steiger, steir (“scaffolding”), German Low German Steiger (“a scaffold; trestle”). Related to Old English āstǣġan (“to ascend, go up, embark”), Old English stīġan (“to go, move, reach; ascend, mount, go up, spring up, rise; scale”), German Stiege (“a flight of stairs”). More at sty.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.