stepping stone

noun

variants or less commonly stepping-stone

ˈste-piŋ-ˌstōn 

plural stepping stones also stepping-stones

1

: a stone on which to step (as in crossing a stream or following a path)

We filled our water bottles in a large, clear lake set in smooth granite, crossed a stream using stepping stones, and started up a winding path that rose to a series of switchbacks.

—Joshua Rothman

As in a Japanese garden, where stepping-stones force you to savor your stroll, you must watch every step and wind your way around the Japanese pines and beach grasses.

—Stephen Drucker

2

: a means of progress or advancement

a stepping stone to success

But now many more see a political job as a stepping stone to money, power and influence.

—Barbara Gamarekian

Each person I talked to was to be a stepping-stone to the overall plan. It was my job to educate them so they would take their natural places in the plan.

—Jane Smiley

Examples of stepping stone in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Boost Mobile, the consumer side of EchoStar’s cellular business, was supposed to serve as a stepping stone to the more lucrative commercial side of providing private 5G services to commercial customers. —Aldo Svaldi, The Denver Post, 15 Nov. 2024

Since then, the franchise has been a revolving door of product launches and business ventures, with the women trying (and mostly failing) to emulate her success in using the show as a stepping stone to entrepreneurship. —Louis Staples, Rolling Stone, 18 Oct. 2024

For those who learn to embrace failure as a stepping stone rather than a roadblock, the possibilities are endless. —Benjamin Laker, Forbes, 8 Oct. 2024

Its outlines emerged in 2004, with the goal of using the moon as a stepping stone toward sending humans to Mars. —Thomas Zurbuchen, Scientific American, 1 Oct. 2024

There was, however, a spike in migrant arrivals to the Canary Islands, a Spanish archipelago close to the African coast that is increasingly used as an alternate stepping stone to continental Europe. —Renata Brito, The Christian Science Monitor, 13 Sep. 2024

Companies should see them as a stepping stone toward more sustainable long-term financing rather than a recurring solution. —Xan Myburgh, Forbes, 2 Oct. 2024

There’s important science to be done on the lunar surface, but Nelson sees the moon as a stepping stone. —Matthew Hutson, The New Yorker, 24 Sep. 2024

The company envisions the system as a stepping stone to fully autonomous driving. —Andrew J. Hawkins, The Verge, 23 Sep. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

stepping-stone

noun

step·​ping-stone

ˈstep-iŋ-ˌstōn

1

: a stone on which to step (as in crossing a stream)

2

: something aiding in progress or advancement

a stepping-stone to success