opening vs staircase

opening

noun
  • A gap permitting passage through. 

  • The first few measures of a musical composition. 

  • The first performance of a show or play by a particular troupe. 

  • The initial period when a show at an art gallery or museum is first opened, especially the first evening. 

  • A vacant position, especially in an array. 

  • An unoccupied employment position. 

  • In mathematical morphology, the dilation of the erosion of a set. 

  • An act or instance of making or becoming open. 

  • A time available in a schedule. 

  • An opportunity, as in a competitive activity. 

  • An act or instance of beginning. 

  • The first few moves in a game. 

adj
  • Pertaining to the start or beginning of a series of events. 

  • describing the first period of play, usually up to the fall of the first wicket; describing a batsman who opens the innings or a bowler who opens the attack 

staircase

noun
  • A connected set of flights of stairs; a stairwell. 

  • A flight of stairs; a stairway. 

  • A set of locks (enclosed sections of waterway) mounted one above the next. 

verb
  • To modify (a signal, a graph, etc.) to reduce a smooth curve to a series of discrete steps. 

  • To increase one's share in a co-ownership. 

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