process vs step

process

verb
  • To walk in a procession 

  • To perform a particular process on a thing. 

  • To develop photographic film. 

  • To take legal proceedings against. 

  • To retrieve, store, classify, manipulate, transmit etc. (data, signals, etc.), especially using computer techniques. 

  • To think about a piece of information, or a concept, in order to assimilate it, and perhaps accept it in a modified state. 

noun
  • Successive physiological responses to keep or restore health. 

  • A path of succession of states through which a system passes. 

  • A set of procedures used to produce a product, most commonly in the food and chemical industries. 

  • The centre mark that players aim at in the game of squails. 

  • A series of events which produce a result (the product). 

  • An executable task or program. 

  • Documents issued by a court in the course of a lawsuit or action at law, such as a summons, mandate, or writ. 

  • A structure that arises above a surface. 

  • An outgrowth of tissue or cell. 

step

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

  • To dance. 

  • To walk slowly, gravely, or resolutely. 

  • To move mentally; to go in imagination. 

  • 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. 

noun
  • 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. 

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

  • 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. 

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