From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishstairwaystair‧way /ˈsteəweɪ $ ˈster-/ noun [countable] DHHTBBa staircase, especially a large or impressive one
Examples from the Corpus
stairway• Chaos ensues, with a plague of bodies littering the rooms and stairways.• Carson waded across the newspaper on the undrained floor and climbed the concrete stairway into the night.• Architects devised the enormous curving stairway, the wide, panelled passageways, the delicately arched and pillared windows.• A narrow stairway of stone curled around a pillar near the door and disappeared through the beams of the roof.• He and Kemp pound down the stairway, exchanging words.• At four my sister, Sheila, tossed a lamp at my head from the stairway.• But it was also a big step on the stairway to the stars.• Miss Tish had smiled back at her as they climbed the winding stairway. 