How to Use half step in a Sentence

half step

noun
  • Dr Hildebrandt’s work is thus a half step along what is likely to be a very long road indeed.
    — The Economist, 4 July 2018
  • This scenario is only a half step away from our current reality.
    — Kelly Pendergrast, WIRED, 14 July 2023
  • Woods nearly collapsed into the sand, but quickly used a golf club and a half step with his left leg to remain upright.
    — Bill Pennington, New York Times, 21 May 2022
  • Getting there was a process as well, much like therapy — two steps forward one day, one-and-a-half steps backward the next.
    — Tony Maglio, HollywoodReporter, 7 Nov. 2025
  • When singers can no longer bound across the stage, stay on pitch or hit notes that once came easily (even after bringing the keys of a song down a half step or more)?
    — George Varga, San Diego Union-Tribune, 10 Dec. 2023
  • On both occasions Saturday night, a recipient got a foot to the ball but was a half step too late.
    — Braidon Nourse, Denver Post, 14 Sep. 2025
  • LaVine finishes the contest by dunking from a half step inside the free-throw line and going between his legs.
    — Zach Harper, New York Times, 12 Feb. 2026
  • Bueckers lofts a pass over the top of the defense and drops it perfectly to her lead teammate, who had maybe a half step on the nearest defender.
    — Jace Frederick, Twin Cities, 22 Nov. 2019
  • Texas has taken a half step, extending postpartum coverage for six months after birth instead of a year.
    — New York Times, 18 Aug. 2022
  • At his worst, McSwain fouled too much, looked a half step off the pace of the game and couldn’t sustain production for long stretches.
    — Zach Osterman, Indianapolis Star, 16 Oct. 2017
  • Michelle Dockery stars as Letty, a career criminal who’s only ever a half step ahead of the law.
    — Margaret Lyons, New York Times, 14 Oct. 2017
  • Your feet should be positioned approximately shoulder-width apart, with your non-firing foot a half step forward of your firing foot.
    — Chris Mudgett, Outdoor Life, 1 July 2020
  • This means the new New York law might be only a half step toward righting one of the wrongs the Nazis committed 80 years ago.
    — Joel Mathis, The Week, 23 Aug. 2022
  • After crunching the data, the team found that on average the voice pitch of new mothers dropped by more than 5 percent, or the equivalent of a half step on the piano.
    — Julissa Treviño, Smithsonian, 1 June 2018
  • Then, with about 130 meters to go, Britain’s Laura Muir also caught her on the outside, then pulled ahead by a half step.
    — Richard A. Lovett, Outside Online, 18 Aug. 2021
  • Jackpot Airlines is about a half step above a commuter airline, and its crew members are either shopworn or under-motivated.
    — David Wiegand, San Francisco Chronicle, 29 Dec. 2017
  • LaCorte lowered the key a half step, beefed up the basic foundation with a few extra tracks and recast the bridge, making that the part where the song’s intensity drops.
    — Tom Roland, Billboard, 8 Feb. 2023
  • The world’s second largest meat company is moving a half step away from its age-old products by introducing a new line of ground beef that’s 50% ground beef and 50% plant-based.
    — Chase Purdy, Quartz, 15 June 2019
  • The Count’s first Contessa, perdono concludes by relaxing a half step downward from the tonic, G, to F-sharp.
    — Matthew Aucoin, The Atlantic, 23 Nov. 2021
  • Kentucky Derby second-place finisher Sierra Leone, a half step from winning, is expected to headline that field.
    — CBS News, 18 May 2024
  • The second and seventh degrees are lowered a half step, meaning that the scale assumes the contour of the Phrygian mode, which medieval theorists considered mystical in character.
    — Alex Ross, The New Yorker, 4 Sep. 2023
  • The famed Rendezvous Ballroom dance floor was so packed, couples would have to do their moves in a close embrace, posture upright while doing short half steps, swiftly shuffling their feet as the partners stepped out and in, over and over, in a rhythmic swing.
    — Laylan Connelly, Oc Register, 19 Apr. 2026
  • The elimination of the half step that produces a lesser bucket of revenue represents a two-fold win for publishers and songwriters in that previously the 80 cents per subscriber bucket always won out as the lesser pool.
    — Ed Christman, Billboard, 29 Jan. 2018
  • This Thursday San Francisco took a half step — a later curfew, indoor events, larger gatherings — as vaccinations continued apace and health officials monitored viral trends.
    — Ryan Kost, San Francisco Chronicle, 16 Apr. 2021
  • The hatch is sort of a half step between Honda’s subcompact HR-V crossover, which has more cargo capacity (about 24 to 56 cubic feet) and can hold slightly larger, wider and taller items.
    — Mark Maynard, sandiegouniontribune.com, 29 Sep. 2017

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'half step.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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