adj, adv ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective

1. 1
   One (small) step or stage at a time; gradual; piecemeal not-comparable

   "The act of translation requires the stepwise decoding of the mRNA one codon at a time."

Adjective

1. 1
   one thing at a time wordnet

Adverb

1. 1
   One step or stage at a time; step by step

Adverb

1. 1
   proceeding in steps wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

bit by bitbit-by-bitgradatimgradualgradualgraduated

Example

More examples

"The act of translation requires the stepwise decoding of the mRNA one codon at a time."

Etymology

From step + -wise.

Related phrases

step by step

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.