Noun

(en noun)

The action of increasing or becoming greater.

* Woodward

the seminary that furnisheth matter for the formation and increment of animal and vegetable bodies

* Coleridge

A nation, to be great, ought to be compressed in its increment by nations more civilized than itself.

(heraldry) The waxing of the moon.

The amount of increase.

(rhetoric) An amplification without strict climax, as in the following passage: "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, think on these things."

Noun

(en noun)

A phase.

* (1800-1859)

Such a polity is suited only to a particular stage in the progress of society.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-28, author=(Joris Luyendijk)

, volume=189, issue=3, page=21, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Our banks are out of control , passage=Seeing the British establishment struggle with the financial sector is like watching an alcoholic […].  Until 2008 there was denial over what finance had become. […]  But the scandals kept coming, and so we entered stage three – what therapists call "bargaining". A broad section of the political class now recognises the need for change but remains unable to see the necessity of a fundamental overhaul. Instead it offers fixes and patches.}}

The area, in any theatre, generally raised, upon which an audience watches plays or other public ceremonies.

* (Alexander Pope) (1688-1744)

Knights, squires, and steeds must enter on the stage .

* (1791–1875)

Lo! Where the stage , the poor, degraded stage, / Holds its warped mirror to a gaping age.

A floor or storey of a house.

(Wyclif)

A floor elevated for the convenience of mechanical work, etc.; scaffolding; staging.

A platform, often floating, serving as a kind of wharf.

A stagecoach, an enclosed horsedrawn carriage used to carry passengers.

* (William Cowper) (1731-1800)

a parcel sent you by the stage

* (Jonathan Swift) (1667–1745)

I went in the sixpenny stage .

(label) A place of rest on a regularly travelled road; a station; a place appointed for a relay of horses.

(label) A degree of advancement in a journey; one of several portions into which a road or course is marked off; the distance between two places of rest on a road.

* Jeffrey

A stage signifies a certain distance on a road.

* 1858 , (Samuel Smiles), (Robert Stephenson), The Life of George Stephenson: Railway Engineer , p.356

He travelled by gig, with his wife, his favourite horse performing the journey by easy stages .

*{{quote-book, year=1910, author=(Emerson Hough)

, title= The Purchase Price, chapter=3 , passage=The Mount Vernon , favoured by a good stage of water, soon cleared the narrow Monongahela channel, passed the confluence, and headed down under full steam, […].}}

(label) The number of an electronic circuit’s block, such as a filter, an amplifier, etc.

The place on a microscope where the slide is located for viewing.

(label) A level; one of the sequential areas making up the game.

A place where anything is publicly exhibited, or a remarkable affair occurs; the scene.

* (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)

When we are born, we cry that we are come / To this stage of fools.

* (John Milton) (1608-1674)

Music and ethereal mirth / Wherewith the stage of air and earth did ring.

* {{quote-news, year=2011, date=September 2, author=Phil McNulty, work=BBC

, title= Bulgaria 0-3 England , passage=Rooney's United team-mate Chris Smalling was given his debut at right-back and was able to adjust to the international stage in relatively relaxed fashion as Bulgaria barely posed a threat of any consequence.}}