Board

How to spell board

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce board

What does board mean?

1. nounA long, flat, thin piece of sawn wood.
2. nounA group of people who manage or direct an organisation.
3. verbTo get on or into a ship, aircraft, train, or bus.
4. nounDaily meals supplied in return for payment, often alongside lodging.

Board in a sentence

• noun

  The carpenter sanded each board before fitting the floor.

• noun

  The board approved the annual budget at its quarterly meeting.

• verb

  Passengers may board the flight once their row is called.

• noun

  The rent covers a room and full board for the term.

• noun

  One loose board on the deck creaked under every step.

• noun

  She was elected to the board of the housing charity.

Where does board come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word comes straight from the Old English bord, a native Germanic word that carried two closely linked meanings: a flat plank of wood, and the side of a ship. Both senses trace back to the same Proto-Germanic root, which is why we still talk about going aboard a vessel and being washed overboard. Because a table was simply a broad plank, bord came to mean the table itself, and from the table where meals and meetings happened we get both the idea of room and board (food provided) and the board of directors (people who gather around a table). The spelling kept the silent visual link to its wooden origins, and the oa vowel is what most often trips writers, especially since board sounds exactly like bored. Knowing that every modern sense, plank, committee, and embarking, grows from one plain Old English word for a flat piece of timber helps fix the single spelling in mind.

How the word is built

• board (whole word, from Old English bord: a plank or table); no separable prefix or suffix

Words that sound like board

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• bored: Feeling weary and restless because nothing is interesting or engaging.