Word.ws English Dictionary

stepped

/stɛpt/

stepped is the simple past and past participle of step.

Meaning of step

Verb

step (third-person singular simple present steps, present participle stepping, simple past and past participle stepped or (dated) stept or (obsolete) stope)

  1. (intransitive) To move the foot in walking; to advance or recede by raising and moving one of the feet to another resting place, or by moving both feet in succession.
    • A “moving platform” scheme[…]is more technologically ambitious than maglev trains even though it relies on conventional rails. Local trains would use side-by-side rails to roll alongside intercity trains and allow passengers to switch trains by stepping through docking bays.2013 June 1, “Ideas coming down the track”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, page 13 (Technology Quarterly)
    1. (intransitive) To don with a stepping action.
      • He stepped into his pants.
  2. (intransitive) To walk; to go (on foot, especially) a little distance.
    • Come one, come all. Step right up!
  3. (intransitive) To walk slowly, gravely, or resolutely.
    • Home from his Morning-Task , the Swain retreats, His flock before him stepping to the fold.a. 1749 (date written), James Thomson, “Summer”, in The Seasons, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, and sold by Thomas Cadell, […], published 1768, →OCLC
  4. To dance.
    • At arms length with left hands clasped they moved back where facing each other they stepped in time to their dance embrace.2013, Calvin Vraa, The Last Pathway Home, page 179
  5. (figuratively, intransitive) To move mentally; to go in imagination.
    • They are stepping almost three thousand years back into the remotest antiquity.1715–1720, Homer, “Book preface”, in Alexander Pope, transl., The Iliad of Homer, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintott […], →OCLC

See all 34 meanings of step

Adjective

stepped (not comparable)

  1. Provided with a step or steps; having a series of offsets or parts resembling the steps of stairs.
    • a stepped key
    • a stepped gear

Words formed from stepped

Phrases with stepped

21 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with stepped

9 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about stepped

What does stepped mean?
Stepped means provided with a step or steps; having a series of offsets or parts resembling the steps of stairs.
What is stepped the simple past and past participle of?
Stepped is the simple past and past participle of step.
What part of speech is stepped?
Stepped is an adjective.
How do you pronounce stepped?
Stepped is pronounced /stɛpt/.

Words near stepped in the dictionary

  1. steppe wisents
  2. steppe-tundra
  3. steppe-tundras
  4. steppe-witch
  5. steppe-witches
  6. stepped
  7. stepped aside
  8. stepped back
  9. stepped between
  10. stepped cycle track
  11. stepped down

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: stepped (page history and authors); step (page history and authors). 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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-stepped.ogg.

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