action vs step

action

noun
  • A way of motion or functioning. 

  • Something done, often so as to accomplish a purpose. 

  • A religious performance or solemn function, i.e. action sermon, a sacramental sermon in the Scots Presbyterian Church. 

  • The mechanism, that is the set of moving mechanical parts, of a keyboard instrument, like a piano, which transfers the motion of the key to the sound-making device. 

  • The effort of performing or doing something. 

  • a process existing in or produced by nature (rather than by the intent of human beings). 

  • The way in which a mechanical device acts when used; especially a firearm. 

  • Fast-paced activity. 

  • The event or connected series of events, either real or imaginary, forming the subject of a play, poem, or other composition; the unfolding of the drama of events. 

  • The distance separating the strings and the fretboard on a guitar or other string instrument. 

  • A charge or other process in a law court (also called lawsuit and actio). 

  • A mapping from a pairing of mathematical objects to one of them, respecting their individual structures. The pairing is typically a Cartesian product or a tensor product. The object that is not part of the output is said to act on the other object. In any given context, action is used as an abbreviation for a more fully named notion, like group action or left group action. 

  • The attitude or position of the several parts of the body as expressive of the sentiment or passion depicted. 

  • Sexual intercourse. 

  • Combat. 

  • spin put on the bowling ball. 

  • The product of energy and time, especially the product of the Lagrangian and time. 

  • The way in which cartridges are loaded, locked, and extracted from the mechanism. 

intj
  • Demanding or signifying the start of something, usually a performance. 

verb
  • To act on a request etc, in order to put it into effect. 

adj
  • arrogant 

step

noun
  • An advance or movement made from one foot to the other; a pace. 

  • The space passed over by one movement of the foot in walking or running. 

  • The interval between two contiguous degrees of the scale. 

  • A running board where passengers step to get on and off the bus. 

  • The part of a spade, digging stick or similar tool that a digger's foot rests against and presses on when digging; an ear, a foot-rest. 

  • A rest, or one of a set of rests, for the foot in ascending or descending, as a stair, or a rung of a ladder. 

  • A print of the foot; a footstep; a footprint; track. 

  • Proceeding; measure; action; act. 

  • One of a series of offsets, or parts, resembling the steps of stairs, as one of the series of parts of a cone pulley on which the belt runs. 

  • A small space or distance. 

  • A portable framework of stairs, much used indoors in reaching to a high position. 

  • A framing in wood or iron which is intended to receive an upright shaft; specifically, a block of wood, or a solid platform upon the keelson, supporting the heel of the mast. 

  • A gait; manner of walking. 

  • A bearing in which the lower extremity of a spindle or a vertical shaft revolves. 

  • A change of position effected by a motion of translation. 

  • A walk; passage. 

  • A distinct part of a process; stage; phase. 

  • A stepchild. 

  • A stepsibling. 

  • A constant difference between consecutive values in a series. 

verb
  • To dance. 

  • To walk slowly, gravely, or resolutely. 

  • To move mentally; to go in imagination. 

  • To walk; to go on foot; especially, to walk a little distance. 

  • To move the foot in walking; to advance or recede by raising and moving one of the feet to another resting place, or by moving both feet in succession. 

  • To fix the foot of (a mast) in its step; to erect. 

  • To set, as the foot. 

How often have the words action and step occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )