stairs
- 1A connected set of steps that links one floor of a building to another.
The marble stairs in the lobby swept up toward a grand balcony.
He carried the heavy box down three flights of stairs.
Similarstaircase, stairway, steps
Note
A noun that keeps its plural shape even when it names one structure, so it takes a plural verb: the stairs are steep. It nearly always comes with the, as in at the top of the stairs or up the stairs. Joseph C. Lincoln's Mr. Pratt's Patients (1913) has its characters tiptoe up the stairs and along the hall. To count whole staircases, English reaches for flights: two flights of stairs.
- 2Plural of stair.
The carpenter measured each of the stairs before fitting the new carpet.
Several stairs near the top had worn smooth over the years.
Note
A regular plural, but of a noun with two meanings: stair can name one step or a whole staircase. Here the plural counts steps one by one, so it pairs with each, several and numbers. When the steps are thought of together as a single way up, English uses the plural-only "staircase" noun instead.
stairs is a form of stair
stair, noun: A series of steps leading from one level of a building to another; a staircase. Full entry
- Forms
- stairstairs plural
- Spelling
- stair → stairs: add -s
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