starboard.
The righthand side of a ship, boat or aircraft when facing the front, or fore or bow. Used to unambiguously refer to directions according to the sides of the vessel, rather than those of a crew member or object.
Meaning & usage
The righthand side of a ship, boat or aircraft when facing the front, or fore or bow. Used to unambiguously refer to directions according to the sides of the vessel, rather than those of a crew member or object.
I see another vessel off the starboard side.
We're on starboard tack, so the other boat has to give way.
One of the two traditional watches aboard a ship standing a watch in two.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English sterbord, stere-bourd, stere-burd, from Old English stēorbord, from Proto-West Germanic *steurubord, equivalent to steer + board (“side (of a ship)”), referring to ancient ships with the steering oar set to the right (to accommodate right-handed crew). Ships had to dock on their left (port) side because the steering oar on the right would get in the way, which is how the left became known as the port side.
To put to the right, or starboard, side of a vessel.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English sterbord, stere-bourd, stere-burd, from Old English stēorbord, from Proto-West Germanic *steurubord, equivalent to steer + board (“side (of a ship)”), referring to ancient ships with the steering oar set to the right (to accommodate right-handed crew). Ships had to dock on their left (port) side because the steering oar on the right would get in the way, which is how the left became known as the port side.
A list that shows messages starred in a community space.
A system that enables such a list.
Where this word comes from
From star + board. The earliest known use was in 2013 on Meta Stack Exchange.
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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.