stair

[stair] /stɛər/

noun

one of a flight or series of steps for going from one level to another, as in a building.

stairs, such steps collectively, especially as forming a flight or a series of flights:

I was so excited I ran all the way up the stairs.

a series or flight of steps; stairway:

a winding stair.

Origin

before 1000; Middle English stey(e)r, Old English stǣger; cognate with Dutch, Low German steiger landing; akin to sty¹

Related forms

stairless, adjective

stairlike, adjective

Examples from the web for stair

On the west side of the building, elevator and stair landings overlook a gallery.
The bank was bombed and the stair down to the vault is filled with rubble.
Hogan showed me one: a human stick figure and three stair steps carefully pecked into a pink boulder.
For two years, patients continually evaluated their knee pain, while doctors examined their walking and stair-climbing abilities.
The house has so many floors that each domestic act necessitates a stair climb.
The mesa top of the crater's center is higher than the stair-stepped rings surrounding it.
It was sometimes his way-the master's, that is-to write his orders on a sheet of paper and throw it on the stair.
The descent to it was through a low door and down a steep, narrow stair.
Sadly echoed her step on the stair and the floor of her chamber.
Visitors are allowed to climb original stair cases and wander the underground warrens of this historic fort.

British Dictionary definitions for stair

stair

/stɛə/

noun

one of a flight of stairs

a series of steps: a narrow stair

See also stairs

Word Origin

Old English stæger; related to stīg narrow path, stīgan to ascend, descend, Old Norse steigurligr upright, Middle Dutch steiger ladder

Word Origin and History for stair

Old English stæger "flight of steps," also "a single step," from Proto-Germanic *staigri (cf. Old Norse and Old Frisian stiga, Middle Dutch stighen, Old High German stigan, German steigen, Gothic steigan "to go up, ascend;" Old English stigan "to climb, go;" German Steig "path," Old English stig "narrow path"), from PIE *steigh- "go, rise, stride, step, walk" (cf. Greek steikhein "to go, march in order," stikhos "row, line, rank, verse;" Sanskrit stighnoti "mounts, rises, steps;" Old Church Slavonic stignati "to overtake," stigna "place;" Lithuanian staiga "suddenly;" Old Irish tiagaim "I walk;" Welsh taith "going, walk, way").

Originally also a collective plural; stairs developed by late 14c. OED says stair still is ordinary in Scotland where flight of stairs would be used elsewhere.