Skip to main content
stairwell

stairwell

84 2.6
A tall space inside a building where people walk up and down between floors
  • noun
  • /ˈstɛrˌwɛl/
translation icon : hueco de la escalera
  • The stairwell was well-lit, making it easy to see the steps as I descended.
  • crane inside a stairwell

And Kate found me passed out in a stairwell, like on the landing of a stairwell.

Autoplay Next

Examples

  • There was grillwork at each landing of the stairwell to catch "divers," prisoners trying to escape.

    Fiction book (1992)
  • There are more hatchways and stairwells on the other side of this wall.

  • How many steps are in the stairwell leading from the second floor to the first floor?

    Academic text (2001)
  • Doors open and close throughout the stairwell, but the traffic is light.

    Fiction book (1993)
  • Now this is the stairwell down to the main entrance that used to only go one way, but now goes two ways.

  • I'm standing in the stairwell.

  • In the far corner, a cased stairwell leads to the rental rooms on the second floor.

    Fiction book (1991)
  • "Great heat rose up the stairwell, as if in a huge, stepped chimney."

    Fiction book (1990)
  • We see a descending steel staircase and stairwell door marked "Floor 40."

    Fiction book (1991)
  • Officers, there's a man in the stairwell waving a gun and screaming.

    Fiction book (1993)

Surface Forms

stairwell singular
stairwells plural

Morphology

stairwell = stair + well (transparent) = stair + well

The meaning is a straightforward combination of 'stair' and 'well' (an enclosure/shaft for stairs), which most learners can infer.

Etymology

Stairwell joins stair ('steps') and well ('a deep shaft or opening'), so picture a 'well' full of steps going up and down. That's why a stairwell is the vertical space in a building that surrounds a staircase.