Aboard

How to spell aboard

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce aboard

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does aboard mean?

1. adverbOn or onto a ship, train, aircraft, bus, or other vehicle.

Aboard in a sentence

• The last passengers climbed aboard just before the ferry departed.

• Once everyone was aboard the train, the doors locked and we pulled away.

Where does aboard come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word comes from the Old English noun 'bord', which literally meant a plank, a board, or specifically the side of a ship; the very same root gives us the everyday 'board' for a flat plank of wood and 'starboard' for the steering side of a vessel. In late Middle English the prefix 'a-', a worn-down form of the preposition 'on', was attached to it, so that to be 'aboard' was literally to be 'on the side' or 'on the deck' of a ship. The form was reinforced by the parallel French phrase 'à bord', which carried exactly the same nautical sense and helped fix the spelling and meaning in English by the fifteenth century. Originally tied entirely to ships, the word later broadened to cover trains, coaches, buses, and aircraft as new forms of travel appeared. Remembering that 'aboard' simply hides the ordinary word 'board' inside it is the easiest way to keep it apart from the look-alike 'abroad', which means in a foreign country.

How the word is built

• a- (on, from Old English 'on')
• board (the side or deck of a ship, from Old English 'bord')