stairs

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈstɛəz/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈstɛɹz/

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  • Rhymes: -ɛə(r)z

stairs

1. plural of stair

stairs pl (plural only)

1. A contiguous set of steps connecting two floors.
   • 1762, Charles Johnstone, The Reverie; or, A Flight to the Paradise of Fools‎, volume 2, Dublin: Printed by Dillon Chamberlaine, OCLC 519072825, page 202:

     At length, one night, when the company by ſome accident broke up much ſooner than ordinary, ſo that the candles were not half burnt out, ſhe was not able to reſiſt the temptation, but reſolved to have them ſome way or other. Accordingly, as ſoon as the hurry was over, and the ſervants, as ſhe thought, all gone to ſleep, ſhe ſtole out of her bed, and went down ſtairs, naked to her ſhift as ſhe was, with a deſign to ſteal them […]

   • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 13, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:

     We tiptoed into the house, up the stairs and along the hall into the room where the Professor had been spending so much of his time.

• (contiguous set of steps): stairway, staircase

• Sartis, arists, sistra, sitars, tisars