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I've seen both of these words used on television programs, but as far as I can
tell they both mean "level"/"steps". Is the word order interchangeable here or
do they mean different things?

A search of Wikipedia reveals that 階段 usually means "staircase", but I don't
understand why the swapped words have similar but subtly different meanings.
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2015-09-04T19:06:15.383
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2015-09-05T09:12:27.387
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question
word-choice
What's the difference between 段階 and 階段?
階段 always means staircase. It can be used metaphorically, e.g. 大人の階段を昇る but
never to the concept of incremental steps. 段階 on the other hand is never used
to refer to staircase and instead refers to the concept of incremental
steps/phases, e.g. `段階を経ましょう`, `第一段階にある`. So they are clearly different. I
suppose it was just a convenient way to generate words!
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2015-09-05T09:12:27.387
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2015-09-05T09:12:27.387
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answer