Word.ws English Dictionary

escalator

Syllables: es·ca·la·tor/ˈɛs.kə.leɪ.tə/US/ˈɛs.kə.leɪ.tɚ/

escalator noun: anything that escalates.

escalator: anything that escalates
Image: JanAinali (gif version Jahobr ), CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

escalator (plural escalators)

  1. Anything that escalates.
    • Fourth, communication researchers study the role of stress and negative attitudes as key contributors to conflict, anger as an escalator of conflict, and emotional residues as barriers to reconciliation.2006, Dudley D. Cahn, Ruth Anna Abigail, Managing Conflict Through Communication, page xiv
  2. A motor-driven mechanical device consisting of a continuous loop of steps that automatically conveys people from one floor to another.
    • There is a plastic molly-guard covering the escalator's shutdown button to prevent little kids from pushing it and stopping the escalator.
    • It was the Earls Court installation on the Piccadilly tube, opened on October 4, 1911, which really began the successful career of the escalator in this country. At first the public mistrusted it, and a wooden-legged man called "Bumper" Harris was engaged to travel up and down all day to give...1957 July, Charles E. Lee, “The Changing Face of Transport”, in Railway Magazine, page 451
  3. An upward or progressive course.
    • Lots of people fell for the pitch that real estate was an up-only escalator into the American Dream2009 February 19, Froma Harrop, “Housing aid may revive American dream for Latinos”, in Houston Chronicle
  4. An escalator clause.
    • They agreed to a cost-of-living escalator.

Verb

escalator (third-person singular simple present escalators, present participle escalatoring, simple past and past participle escalatored)

  1. (informal, intransitive) To move by escalator.
    • We escalatored to the second floor.
    Synonyms:
    escalate

escalator meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

escalator in Hindi

mechanical device
एस्केलेटर eskeleṭar, चलसोपान calsopān, चलती सीढ़ी caltī sīṛhī

escalator in Tamil

மின்படிக்கட்டு, நகர்படி, மின்படி, நகரேணி, தானியங்கிபடி, நகரும் படிக்கட்டு

escalator in Marathi

एस्केलेटर, एसकेलेटर, एस्कॅलेटर

escalator in Urdu

mechanical device
ایسْکِلیٹَر eskileṭar
More languagesFewer languages
escalator in Bengali
এস্কেলেটর eskeleṭor
escalator in Telugu
ఎస్కలేటర్, ఎస్కేలేటర్
escalator in Malayalam
എസ്കലേറ്റർ, എസ്ക്കലേറ്റർ
escalator in Kannada
ಏರಿಳಿ ಪಾವಟಿಗೆಗಳು, ಸೋಪಾನ, ಏರಿಳಿ
escalator in Punjabi
ਐਸਕੇਲੇਟਰ, ਐਸਕੈਲੇਟਰ, ਐਸਕਲੇਟਰ
escalator in Gujarati
એસ્કેલેટર, એસકેલેટર
escalator in Odia
ଏସ୍କେଲେଟର, ଏସ୍କେଲେଟର୍
escalator in Nepali
एस्केलेटर, एसकेलेटर, एस्केलेटरलाई
escalator in Pashto
برقي ځينه barqí źiná
escalator in Tagalog
sigdan
escalator in Arabic
دَرَج مُتَحَرِّك daraj mutaḥarrik, سُلَّم مُتَحَرِّك sullam mutaḥarrik, سُلَّم دَوَّار sullam dawwār
escalator in Malay
tangga elektrik, tangga gerak, eskalator
escalator in Indonesian
tangga berjalan, eskalator
escalator in Thai
บันไดเลื่อน ban-dai-lʉ̂ʉan
escalator in Vietnamese
thang cuốn
escalator in Myanmar
စက်လှေကား cakhleka:

Examples of escalator in a sentence

  • It was the Earls Court installation on the Piccadilly tube, opened on October 4, 1911, which really began the successful career of the escalator in this country.1957 July, Charles E. Lee, “The Changing Face of Transport”, in Railway Magazine, page 451:
  • I found the Tube trains morbidly fascinating, I had a simpler enthusiasm for the escalators.2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, →ISBN, page xiv-xv, Preface:
  • And a trip to Holloway Road to find out about the Tube's only spiral escalator. [This escalator never entered service]2021 June 30, Tim Dunn, “How we made... Secrets of the London Underground”, in RAIL, number 934, page 51:

All 28 example sentences with escalator

Synonyms of escalator

Forms of escalator

Noun
pluralescalators
Verb
third-person singular presentescalators
present participleescalatoring
past participleescalatored
pastescalatored

Plural of escalator: escalators

Origin of escalator

By genericization from the former trademark Escalator, created by American inventor Charles Seeberger in 1900, from Latin ē- (“from, out of”) + scala (“ladder”) + -tor, which forms nouns of agency; see the appendix. Broader usage may be influenced by its derivative escalate, by surface analysis, escalate + -or. For an alternative etymology, see the Online Etymology Dictionary.

Words formed from escalator

Phrases with escalator

Words that rhyme with escalator

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about escalator

What does escalator mean?
Escalator means anything that escalates.
What is escalator in Hindi?
Escalator in Hindi is एस्केलेटर (eskeleṭar), चलसोपान (calsopān), चलती सीढ़ी (caltī sīṛhī). See Escalator meaning in Hindi.
How do you use escalator in a sentence?
It was the Earls Court installation on the Piccadilly tube, opened on October 4, 1911, which really began the successful career of the escalator in this country.
What part of speech is escalator?
Escalator can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce escalator?
Escalator is pronounced /ˈɛs.kə.leɪ.tə/ (UK).
What is the plural of escalator?
The plural of escalator is escalators.

Words near escalator in the dictionary

  1. escalatio
  2. escalation
  3. escalation plan
  4. escalation plans
  5. escalations
  6. escalator
  7. escalator barrel
  8. escalator barrels
  9. escalator clause
  10. escalator clauses
  11. escalator school

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: escalator (page history and authors); escalator (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); escalator (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); escalator (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); escalator (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); escalator (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); escalator (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); escalator (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); escalator (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); escalator (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-escalator.wav.

Cite this entry: “escalator.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/escalator. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.