Upstairs

How to spell upstairs

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce upstairs

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does upstairs mean?

1. adverbTo or on a higher floor of a building, reached by climbing stairs.
2. adjectiveSituated on a higher floor of a building.
3. nounThe upper floor or floors of a building, considered as a whole.

Upstairs in a sentence

• adverb

  She carried the laundry basket upstairs to the bedrooms.

• adjective

  The upstairs bathroom needs a new tap.

• noun

  The whole upstairs was repainted over the weekend.

• adverb

  The children were already asleep upstairs when the guests arrived.

• adjective

  They rented out the upstairs flat to a quiet couple.

• noun

  A leak in the upstairs stained the ceiling below.

Where does upstairs come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a transparent compound built from two native English words: the adverb 'up', from Old English 'upp' meaning 'in or to a higher position', and 'stairs', the plural of 'stair', which descends from Old English 'stǣger', a flight of steps for climbing. Both elements belong to the Germanic core of English, and the 'stair' word is related to the old verb 'stigan', meaning 'to climb or ascend', the same root that survives in the dialect word 'sty' for rising. The two words were written separately for centuries before settling into a single fused form, and the compound 'upstairs' is recorded from the seventeenth century onward as houses with multiple storeys became common. The spelling keeps the plural 's' of 'stairs' even when the word functions as an adjective in front of a noun, which is the small detail writers sometimes second-guess. Because both halves are everyday words, the modern spelling is steady and rarely troubles fluent adults.

How the word is built

• up (Old English upp: in or to a higher place)
• stairs (plural of stair, from Old English stǣger: a flight of steps)