What does STAGE mean?

noun

1. any distinct time period in a sequence of events“we are in a transitional stage in which many former ideas must be revised or rejected”
2. a specific identifiable position in a continuum or series or especially in a process“a remarkable degree of frankness”
3. a large platform on which people can stand and can be seen by an audience“he clambered up onto the stage and got the actors to help him into the box”
4. the theater as a profession (usually `the stage')“an early movie simply showed a long kiss by two actors of the contemporary stage”
5. a large coach-and-four formerly used to carry passengers and mail on regular routes between towns“we went out of town together by stage about ten or twelve miles”
6. a section or portion of a journey or course“then we embarked on the second stage of our Caribbean cruise”
7. any scene regarded as a setting for exhibiting or doing something“All the world's a stage”
8. a small platform on a microscope where the specimen is mounted for examination