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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

board.

A relatively long, wide and thin piece of any material, usually wood or similar, often for use in construction or furniture-making.

5 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/bɔːd/Received-Pronunciation/boːd/Australia, British, New-Zealand, Southern, Standard/bɔɹd/General-American/boɾd/Scotland
  1. A relatively long, wide and thin piece of any material, usually wood or similar, often for use in construction or furniture-making.

    countable · uncountable
  2. A device (e.g., switchboard) containing electrical switches and other controls and designed to control lights, sound, telephone connections, etc.

    countable · uncountable
  3. A flat surface with markings for playing a board game.

    countable · uncountable
    Each player starts the game with four counters on the board.
  4. Short for blackboard, whiteboard, chessboard, surfboard, circuit board, message board (on the Internet), bulletin board, etc.

    abbreviation · alt-of · countable · uncountable
  5. A committee that manages the business of an organization, e.g., a board of directors.

    countable · uncountable
    We have to wait to hear back from the board.
  6. Regular meals in a place of lodging; the price paid for them.

    uncountable
    board and lodging
    room and board
  7. The side of a ship.

    countable · uncountable
  8. The distance a sailing vessel runs between tacks when working to windward.

    countable · uncountable
  9. The wall that surrounds an ice hockey rink.

    countable · in-plural · often · uncountable
  10. A long, narrow table, like that used in a medieval dining hall.

    archaic · countable · uncountable
  11. Paper made thick and stiff like a board, for book covers, etc.; pasteboard.

    countable · uncountable
    to bind a book in boards
  12. A level or stage having a particular two-dimensional layout.

    countable · uncountable
  13. The portion of the playing field where creatures or minions can be placed (or played, summoned, etc.).

    countable · uncountable
  14. A container for holding pre-dealt cards that is used to allow multiple sets of players to play the same cards.

    countable · uncountable
  15. A Philippine provincial or Uruguayan departmental assembly or council.

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

Board (duplicate bridge) From Middle English boord, boorde, bord, bourd, burd, from Old English bord, from Proto-West Germanic *bord, from Proto-Germanic *burdą (“board, plank; edge; table”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰers- (“tip, top”) + *-dʰeti or *bʰerH- (“to pierce; to strike”) + *-dʰeti. The senses "food" and "council" are by metonymy from the sense "table". Cognates Cognate with Scots buird (“board; table”), Yola borde (“table”), West Frisian boerd (“board”), Dutch bord (“dish, plate; board, plank; sign”), boord (“border, boundary; bank, shore”), German Bord (“shelf”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish bord (“plank; table”), Elfdalian buord (“table”), Faroese and Icelandic borð (“board, plank; table”), Gothic *𐌱𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌳 (*baurd, “board, plank”) (whence 𐍆𐍉𐍄𐌿𐌱𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌳 (fōtubaurd, “footstool”).

verb/bɔːd/Received-Pronunciation/boːd/Australia, British, New-Zealand, Southern, Standard/bɔɹd/General-American/boɾd/Scotland
  1. To step or climb onto or otherwise enter a ship, aircraft, train or other conveyance.

    transitive
    It is time to board the aircraft.
  2. To provide someone with meals and lodging, usually in exchange for money.

    transitive
    to board one’s horse at a livery stable
  3. To receive meals and lodging in exchange for money.

    transitive
  4. To (at least attempt to) capture an enemy ship by going alongside and grappling her, then invading her with a boarding party.

    transitive
  5. To obtain meals, or meals and lodgings, statedly for compensation

    intransitive
  6. To approach (someone); to make advances to, accost.

    archaic · transitive
  7. To cover with boards or boarding.

    to board a house
  8. To hit (someone) with a wooden board.

  9. To write something on a board, especially a blackboard or whiteboard.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

Board (duplicate bridge) From Middle English boord, boorde, bord, bourd, burd, from Old English bord, from Proto-West Germanic *bord, from Proto-Germanic *burdą (“board, plank; edge; table”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰers- (“tip, top”) + *-dʰeti or *bʰerH- (“to pierce; to strike”) + *-dʰeti. The senses "food" and "council" are by metonymy from the sense "table". Cognates Cognate with Scots buird (“board; table”), Yola borde (“table”), West Frisian boerd (“board”), Dutch bord (“dish, plate; board, plank; sign”), boord (“border, boundary; bank, shore”), German Bord (“shelf”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish bord (“plank; table”), Elfdalian buord (“table”), Faroese and Icelandic borð (“board, plank; table”), Gothic *𐌱𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌳 (*baurd, “board, plank”) (whence 𐍆𐍉𐍄𐌿𐌱𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌳 (fōtubaurd, “footstool”).

noun/bɔːd/Received-Pronunciation/boːd/Australia, British, New-Zealand, Southern, Standard/bɔɹd/General-American/boɾd/Scotland
  1. A rebound.

    informal
Where this word comes from

From backboard.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.