I am puzzled as to why it is we use the word 'stair/s' for inside a building and 'step/s' for outside a building.

Thank you, I never knew that there ìs a difference. Welcome.

I've never had that pointed out to me..but of course, you are right.
I think of steps as being 'small number' of steps but then there are steps to a cathedral that can be 20 or more. Stairs are usually a 'bigger number'.

Stairs also tend to have a banister or hand rail whereas steps are free standing without these...steps occur outside buildings or leading up to them...

here, new construction of outside 'steps' must now have a railing, by city ordinance.

WELCOME, LONNY


Interesting distinction you make, I wonder how universal
it is.

A news commentator reporting on government demonstrations
in the capital city of some state, probably Wisconsin,
this morning, said "on the stairs of the capital". She
was outside. So......

Anyway, it's stairway to heaven, (very much outside everything) not steps.

And there was the movie "Up the Down Staircase".

I love that song. I once started a collection, trying to find it by as as many artist as I could...I wonder what happened to it


I was talking to a pilot friend and happen to think about this step/stair Q, so I asked what were the steps called that get people into the plane.
Its an AIRSTAIR. It may be fixed to an aircraft and lowered or raised to allow passengers to board or disembark from an aircraft, though most larger airlines use a mobile staircase or walkway.
A safety device called a Cooper Vain was fitted to prevent the airstair be used while a plane is flying after a hijacker used this as escape route in 1971.

Most places I have landed have the long tube you walk through
to get to the terminal. In Israel, however, security
conscious, the air stair was in use universally.