Boarded

How to spell boarded

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce boarded

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does boarded mean?

1. verbGot onto a ship, train, bus, or aircraft.
2. verbCovered or sealed an opening with wooden planks.
3. verbLived in someone's house and received meals in return for payment.

Boarded in a sentence

• The passengers boarded the delayed flight just before midnight.

• The owners boarded up the windows before the storm hit the coast.

• As a student he boarded with a local family near the university.

• She boarded the early train to reach the meeting on time.

• Workers boarded the empty shopfront to keep intruders out.

• The two apprentices boarded above the bakery for the summer.

Where does boarded come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is the past tense of the verb 'board', which traces back to the Old English noun 'bord', meaning a plank or flat piece of wood, and also a table and the side of a ship. The same Germanic root gave neighbouring languages words for plank and edge, and it survives in the modern senses of a wooden board, the side of a vessel, and a table around which people gather to confer, as in a board of directors. Because a ship's side was its 'bord', to come aboard meant to climb over that side, and from there the verb 'board' came to mean entering any vessel, then any train, bus, or aircraft. A separate strand drew on the table sense: to 'board' with a family meant to take meals at their table in return for payment, which is why we still speak of board and lodging. The spelling keeps the silent pattern 'oa', which is exactly what makes it easy to confuse on paper with its homophone 'bored', the feeling of dull tedium that has no wood in it at all.

How the word is built

• board (Old English bord: plank, table, ship's side)
• -ed (past tense suffix)