noun
escalator
EHS-kuh-lay-tuh
noun
1
A moving staircase made of a continuous loop of steps that carries people between floors.
"They took the escalator up to the second floor of the mall."
How to Use Escalator
Learner’s notesIn plain EnglishA moving set of stairs that carries people up or down automatically.
Common pairings
ride the escalator
escalator clause
Word Forms
escalatored past tense, escalators plural, escalators singular
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Etymology
Coined around 1900 from Latin ē- ("out of") plus scala ("ladder") plus the agent suffix -tor — originally a trademark for the moving-stair device before becoming a generic word.