step·wise (st?p?w?z?)adj.1. Marked by a gradual progression as if step by step: “Quantum mechanics is a natural system of stepwise interactions that governs very small things” (Malcolm W. Browne).2. Music Moving from one tone to an adjacent one.step?wise? adv.American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.stepwise (?st?p?wa?z) adj1. arranged in the manner of or resembling steps2. (Music, other) music US proceeding by melodic intervals of a secondadv3. with the form or appearance of steps; step by step4. (Music, other) music US in a stepwise motionCollins English Dictionary ? Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014step?wise (?st?p?wa?z) adv. 1. in a steplike arrangement. adj. 2. Music. moving from one adjacent tone to another. [1885?90] Random House Kernerman Webster’s College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.