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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

footstep.

The mark or impression left by a foot; a track.

8 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈfʊtstɛp/
  1. The mark or impression left by a foot; a track.

    The child watched as his footsteps in the sand were washed away by the waves.
  2. The indications or waypoints of a course or direction taken.

    broadly · figuratively · sometimes
    To walk the footsteps of greatness requires that you start at the bottom of a long stair.
    follow in someone's footsteps
  3. The sound made by walking, running etc.

    The footsteps of the students echoed in the empty hall.
  4. A step, as in a stair.

    The garden path had a small footstep down to the main walkway.
  5. The distance between one foot and the next when walking; a pace.

    Mere footsteps away from the victim lay the murder weapon.
  6. The act of taking a step.

    Take one more footstep towards me, and I'll make you sorry!
  7. An inclined plane under a hand printing press.

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

From Middle English fotstep, fotstappe, from Old English *fōtstepe, *fōtstæpe (attested only in derivative fōtstappel (“footstep”)), equivalent to foot + step. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Foutstappe (“footstep”), West Frisian fuotstap (“footstep”), Dutch voetstap (“footstep”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.