different between sill vs step

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: s?l, IPA^(key): /s?l/,
• Rhymes: -?l

Etymology 1

From Middle English sille, selle, sülle, from Old English syll, syl (“sill, threshold, foundation, base, basis”), from Proto-Germanic *sul? (“bar, sill”), from Proto-Indo-European *sel-, *swel- (“beam, board, frame, threshold”). Cognate with Scots sil, sill (“balk, beam, floor, sill”), Dutch zulle (“sill”), Low German Sull, Sülle (“threshold, ramp, sill”), Danish syld (“base of a framework building”), Swedish syll (“joist, cross-tie”), Norwegian syll, Icelandic syll, sylla (“sill”). Related also to German Schwelle ( > Danish svelle), Old Norse svill, Latin silva (“wood, forest”), Ancient Greek ??? (húl?).

Noun

sill (plural sills)

1. (architecture) (also window sill) breast wall; window breast; horizontal brink which forms the base of a window.

   She looked out the window resting her elbows on the window sill.

2. (construction) threshold; horizontal structural member of a building near ground level on a foundation or pilings, or lying on the ground, and bearing the upright portion of a frame. Wikipedia:Sill Plate
3. (geology) ridge; rise; horizontal layer of igneous rock between older rock beds.
   • 1980, U.S. Government Printing Office, Geological Survey Professional Paper, Volume 1119

     Minor palingenetic magmas probably were generated at this time and intruded the mantling rocks in the form of small sills and apophyses; […]

4. Threshold or brink across the bottom of a canal lock for the gates to shut against.
5. (anatomy) A raised area at the base of the nasal aperture in the skull.

   the nasal sill

6. (military, historical) The inner edge of the bottom of an embrasure.

Usage notes

Usually spelled cill when used in the context of canal or river engineering.

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:sill.

Derived terms

• doorsill
• groundsill
• mudsill
• silled
• windowsill

Related terms

• lintel
• plate sense #13 (construction)

Translations

Etymology 2

Compare sile.

Noun

sill (plural sills)

1. (Britain) A young herring.

Etymology 3

Compare thill.

Noun

sill (plural sills)

1. The shaft or thill of a carriage.

Anagrams

• ills

Swedish

Etymology

From Old Norse síld, from Proto-Germanic *s?l?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /s?l/

Noun

sill c

1. a herring

Usage notes

• Herring from the Atlantic on Sweden's west coast is called sill. The subspecies fished from the Baltic Sea on Sweden's east coast is called strömming.

Declension

See also

• strömming

References

• Harris, Cyril M.. Illustrated dictionary of historic architecture. New York: Dover Publications, 1983, 1977. Groundsill ?ISBN

Welsh

Etymology

See the etymology of the main entry.

Noun

sill f (plural sillau or silloedd, not mutable)

1. Alternative form of sillaf (“syllable”)

Further reading

• R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present) , “sill”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies

English

Etymology

From Middle English steppen, from Old English steppan (“to step, go, proceed, advance”), stepe (“step”), from Proto-Germanic *stapjan? (“to step”), *stapiz (“step”), from Proto-Indo-European *stab- (“to support, stomp, curse, be amazed”). Cognate with West Frisian stappe (“to step”), North Frisian stape (“to walk, trudge”), Dutch stappen (“to step, walk”), Walloon steper (“to walk away, leave”), German stapfen (“to trudge, stomp, plod”) and further to Slavic Polish st?pa? (“to stomp, stamp, step, tread”), Russian ??????? (stupat?) and Polish stopie? (“step, stair, rung, degree”), Russian ??????? (stepen?). Related to stamp, stomp.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /st?p/
• Hyphenation: step
• Rhymes: -?p
• Homophone: steppe

Noun

step (plural steps)

1. An advance or movement made from one foot to the other; a pace.

   • Turning back, then, toward the basement staircase, she began to grope her way through blinding darkness, but had taken only a few uncertain steps when, of a sudden, she stopped short and for a little stood like a stricken thing, quite motionless save that she quaked to her very marrow in the grasp of a great and enervating fear.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:step.
2. A rest, or one of a set of rests, for the foot in ascending or descending, as a stair, or a rung of a ladder.
   • 1624, Sir Henry Wotton, The Elements Of Architecture

     The breadth of every single step or stair should be never less than one foot.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:step.
3. A distinct part of a process; stage; phase.

4. A running board where passengers step to get on and off the bus.

5. The space passed over by one movement of the foot in walking or running.

   • To derive two or three general principles of motion from phenomena, and afterwards to tell us how the properties and actions of all corporeal things follow from those manifest principles, would be a very great step in philosophy.

6. A small space or distance.

7. A print of the foot; a footstep; a footprint; track.
8. A gait; manner of walking.
   • 1900, Charles W. Chesnutt, The House Behind the Cedars, Chapter I,

     Warwick passed through one of the wide brick arches and traversed the building with a leisurely step.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:step.
9. Proceeding; measure; action; act.
   • 1717, Alexander Pope, Preface to his collection of poems

     The reputation of a man depends on the first steps he makes in the world.

   • c. 1792, William Cowper, The Needless Alarm

     Beware of desperate steps. The darkest day, Live till to-morrow, will have passed away.

   • 1879, George Washington Cable, Old Creole Days

     I have lately taken steps […] to relieve the old gentleman's distresses.

   • 2019, VOA Learning English (public domain)

     Moon has also requested that government officials take additional steps to help fight pollution, his spokesman said.

10. (in the plural) A walk; passage.

    • Conduct my steps to find the fatal tree.

11. (in the plural) A portable framework of stairs, much used indoors in reaching to a high position.
12. (nautical) A framing in wood or iron which is intended to receive an upright shaft; specifically, a block of wood, or a solid platform upon the keelson, supporting the heel of the mast.
13. (machines) One of a series of offsets, or parts, resembling the steps of stairs, as one of the series of parts of a cone pulley on which the belt runs.
14. (machines) A bearing in which the lower extremity of a spindle or a vertical shaft revolves.
15. (music) The interval between two contiguous degrees of the scale.

    Usage note: The word tone is often used as the name of this interval; but there is evident incongruity in using tone for indicating the interval between tones. As the word scale is derived from the Italian scala, a ladder, the intervals may well be called steps.

16. (kinematics) A change of position effected by a motion of translation.

    (Can we find and add a quotation of William Kingdon Clifford to this entry?)

17. (programming) A constant difference between consecutive values in a series.

18. (slang) A stepsibling.

Synonyms

• stride

Hyponyms

• back step, half step, etc. see under back, half, etc.
• cyclic step

Derived terms

• cross-step (a step in which one foot is crossed over another; the action of taking such a step or steps)
• step-by-step
• step-free
• stepmeal
• stepwise

Related terms

Translations

Verb

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

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.
2. (intransitive) To walk; to go on foot; especially, to walk a little distance.

3. (intransitive) To walk slowly, gravely, or resolutely.

   • Home from his Morning-Task , the Swain retreats, His flock before him stepping to the fold.

4. (intransitive, figuratively) To move mentally; to go in imagination.
5. (transitive) To set, as the foot.
   • 2010, Charles E. Miller, Winds of Mercy: 40 Short Stories (page 219)

     One of the women, Elsie, stepped her foot inside to help the woman.

6. (transitive, nautical) To fix the foot of (a mast) in its step; to erect.
   • 1898, Joseph Conrad, Youth

     We put everything straight, stepped the long-boat's mast for our skipper, who was in charge of her, and I was not sorry to sit down for a moment.

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• step-

Further reading

• step in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• step at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• EPTs, ESTP, PETs, Pest, Sept, Sept., TPEs, Teps, pest, pets, sept, sept-, spet

Czech

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /st?p/

Etymology 1

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

step f

1. steppe

Declension

Etymology 2

From English step

Noun

step m inanimate

1. tap dance

Declension

Further reading

• step in P?íru?ní slovník jazyka ?eského, 1935–1957
• step in Slovník spisovného jazyka ?eského, 1960–1971, 1989

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from English step (“footrest on a bicycle”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /st?p/
• Hyphenation: step
• Rhymes: -?p

Noun

step f (plural steps, diminutive stepje n)

1. kick scooter

   Synonyms: autoped, trottinette

2. (dated) A mounting bracket on a bicycle.

Derived terms

• steppen

Indonesian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /s(?)t?p/
• Hyphenation: stèp

Etymology 1

From English step, from Middle English steppen, from Old English steppan (“to step, go, proceed, advance”), stepe (“step”), from Proto-Germanic *stapjan? (“to step”), *stapiz (“step”), from Proto-Indo-European *stab- (“to support, stomp, curse, be amazed”).

Noun

stèp (first-person possessive stepku, second-person possessive stepmu, third-person possessive stepnya)

1. step; pace, gait.

Etymology 2

From Dutch stuip (“convulsion”), from Middle Dutch st?pe, stupen, stuypen (“convulsion”, literally “to duck, to bend down”), from Old English stupian (“to stoop, bend over”) (compare to English stoop (“to bend”)), from Old Norse stúpa, from Proto-Germanic *st?p?n?, *st?pijan? (“to stand out”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)tewb- (“to push, butt, knock”).

Noun

stèp (first-person possessive stepku, second-person possessive stepmu, third-person possessive stepnya)

1. (colloquial, medicine) convulsion.

   Synonym: setip

   Synonyms: sawan, kejang

Further reading

• “step” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia (KBBI) Daring, Jakarta: Badan Pengembangan dan Pembinaan Bahasa, Kementerian Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan Republik Indonesia, 2016.

Middle English

Noun

step

1. Alternative form of steppe

Polish

Etymology

From Ukrainian ???? (step).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /st?p/

Noun

step m inan

1. (often in the plural) steppe

Declension

Further reading

• step in Wielki s?ownik j?zyka polskiego, Instytut J?zyka Polskiego PAN
• step in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Spanish

Etymology

From English step.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?step/, [?st?ep]

• IPA^(key): /es?tep/, [es?t?ep]

Noun

step m (uncountable)

1. step training