Word.ws English Dictionary

stepping-stone

stepping-stone is the alternative form of stepping stone.

Meaning of stepping stone

Noun

stepping stone (plural stepping stones)

  1. A stone that can be stepped on in crossing something, especially a marsh or creek.
    • Falling—her veriest stepping-stone
      Shall form the pedestal of a throne— […]1829, Edgar Allan Poe, “Tamerlane”, in Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems
    Synonyms:
    means, way
  2. (idiomatic) Something used as a way to progress to something or somewhere else.
    • He was full of ambition, and force, and life, intending all sorts of great things, and meaning to make his position a stepping stone to all that was excellent in public life.

Forms of stepping-stone

pluralstepping-stones

Questions about stepping-stone

What is stepping-stone the alternative form of?
Stepping-stone is the alternative form of stepping stone.

Words near stepping-stone in the dictionary

  1. stepping switches
  2. stepping to
  3. stepping up
  4. stepping up one's game
  5. stepping up to the plate
  6. stepping-stone
  7. stepping-stones
  8. Steppingley
  9. steppings
  10. steppingstone
  11. steppingstones

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: stepping-stone (page history and authors); stepping stone (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.

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