Stairstepped

Part of speech: verb, adjective

Definitions

1. Arranged or moved in a series of level steps, rising or falling in regular increments like a staircase
2. Shaped or progressing in a succession of step-like tiers, each one higher or lower than the last
3. Formed into a set of stepped levels, or advanced in measured jumps that resemble the treads of stairs

Etymology: "Stairstepped" is the past tense and past participle of "stairstep," a verb meaning to arrange or move in a series of regular, step-like increments. The verb is built from two plain English words: "stair," a flight of steps, and "step," a single tread or the act of moving a foot. Joined together, they describe something that rises or falls in the same pattern a staircase does. The compound is transparent in a way many English words are not. Nothing about it is borrowed from Latin or French; its parts were already English, and the sense of the whole follows directly from the sense of the parts. A graph whose line climbs in sudden jumps rather than a smooth slope, or a set of prices that rises by fixed amounts, is said to be stairstepped because it looks exactly like a staircase seen from the side.