gently vs step by step

gently

adv
  • Without strong force or quickness: softly, lightly. 

  • In a gentle manner; to a gentle degree. 

  • From a gentle or high-class family. 

  • Quietly: without much noise or motion. 

step by step

adv
  • Gradually and steadily. 

  • From one stage to the next in sequence. 

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