How to Use stepping stone in a Sentence

stepping stone

noun
  • Norvell sees this as a lifetime job, not a stepping stone.
    — Sean Keeler, Denver Post, 24 Sep. 2025
  • But the school, at least for now, remains a stepping stone.
    — Dana O’Neil, CNN Money, 19 Dec. 2025
  • Even small projects like adding stepping stones can improve the look of your home.
    — Angie Hicks, Boston Herald, 28 May 2026
  • The Bruins are no stepping stone.
    — Joseph Dycus, Mercury News, 27 Nov. 2025
  • This is, in many ways, the stepping stone to a much larger trial, and that’s what’s expected.
    — Alexa Mikhail, Flow Space, 14 Jan. 2026
  • This ornamental thyme can be used to fill in the sandy spaces between stepping stones or crevices in rock walls.
    — Brandee Gruener, Southern Living, 18 Apr. 2026
  • Is the no-truck zone and especially the busway, then, a stepping stone to a permanent no-car zone?
    — Christopher Bonanos, Curbed, 4 June 2026
  • Hopefully, the win over the Eagles is just a stepping stone to much bigger things.
    — Evan Massey, MSNBC Newsweek, 8 Oct. 2025
  • That was a really big stepping stone for Team Canada to get that under its belt.
    — Pierre Lebrun, New York Times, 12 Feb. 2026
  • For a simple update, consider adding a stepping stone path or lining the route with landscape lights.
    — Marisa Donnelly, Better Homes & Gardens, 3 May 2026
  • Does Rubio care how many soldiers and civilians will fall on these violent stepping stones to stature?
    — Pat Beall, Sun Sentinel, 9 Jan. 2026
  • In hardware, custom projects can be stepping stones toward scalable designs.
    — Yurii Zinchenko, Forbes.com, 15 Sep. 2025
  • Ultimately, failure is not the end but a stepping stone toward success.
    — Nancy Pulciano, Rolling Stone, 2 Jan. 2026
  • The director and his star explain how Marvel was their stepping stone to this survival horror movie.
    — Nick Romano, Entertainment Weekly, 29 Jan. 2026
  • Municipal offices are often a stepping stone to higher office.
    — Sun Sentinel Editorial Board, Sun Sentinel, 21 Mar. 2026
  • Separated by labyrinths of creeks and smaller cays, each one represents a stepping stone away from civilization, Parrish told me.
    — Henry Wismayer, Travel + Leisure, 7 Jan. 2026
  • These colleges are the stepping stone to the NFL, their football teams drawing thousands of fans and generating millions of dollars.
    — Eduardo Tansley, New York Times, 10 Oct. 2025
  • But while Blackstreet's investments all but guaranteed its CEO's son's team a stepping stone to the next level, Gunty sold others the same dream.
    — Kenny Jacoby, USA Today, 7 May 2026
  • Be sure to take the stepping stone walkway over the sand and shallow water to the Director’s Cut restaurant to enjoy tasty dishes such as fresh sashimi and black cod while watching a movie on a giant screen perched over the water.
    — William Curtis, Travel + Leisure, 6 May 2026
  • The state Department of Health Services warns e-cigarettes can become a stepping stone to addiction and liquid nicotine can contain heavy metals like lead, among other health risks.
    — Hope Karnopp, jsonline.com, 7 Oct. 2025
  • Schuster said the Fujian is more likely a stepping stone, and China’s next carrier, the Type 004, on which early construction is believed to have begun, will incorporate lessons learned from it.
    — Brad Lendon, CNN Money, 26 Oct. 2025
  • The new paper is mostly an ethical exploration and, the authors acknowledge, still just a stepping stone to more concrete regulations, but granting ice rights would create firmer standing to, for example, keep ships out of areas that humanity might otherwise want to use.
    — Brett Simpson, The Atlantic, 26 Dec. 2025
  • This 60th anniversary of the Super Bowl is just a stepping stone to the NFL reaching new audiences, bridging cultural divides, and expanding its reach globally.
    — Gladys Louise Tyler, Forbes.com, 30 Jan. 2026
  • Pro-independence activists have frequently accused Dharamsala of muzzling their voices to reassure Beijing that the Dalai Lama’s calls for autonomy are genuine and not a stepping stone to independence.
    — Tenzin Dorjee, Foreign Affairs, 1 Sep. 2025
  • Hamilton could face pushback in the Senate confirmation process over never having led an emergency management agency, a common stepping stone to becoming administrator of an agency with over 21,000 employees.
    — ABC News, 11 May 2026
  • Senate confirmation process could raise questions of experience Hamilton could face pushback in the Senate confirmation process over never having led an emergency management agency, a common stepping stone to becoming administrator of an agency with over 21,000 employees.
    — Gabriela Aoun Angueira, Los Angeles Times, 12 May 2026
  • Senate confirmation process could raise questions of experience Hamilton could face pushback in the Senate confirmation process over never having led an emergency management agency, a common stepping stone to becoming administrator of an agency with over 21,000 employees.
    — Gabriela Aoun Angueira, Chicago Tribune, 11 May 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'stepping stone.' 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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