Boardwalk

How to spell boardwalk

9 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce boardwalk

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does boardwalk mean?

1. nounA raised walkway made of wooden planks, typically running along a beach or waterfront.

Boardwalk in a sentence

• The seaside town repaired the boardwalk before the summer crowds arrived.

• They bought ice cream from a stall on the boardwalk and watched the tide come in.

Where does boardwalk come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Boardwalk is a transparent compound of two very old native English words: 'board', meaning a flat plank of wood, and 'walk', meaning a path or the act of going on foot. The first element traces to the Old English 'bord', a word for a plank or table that also gave us 'cupboard' and 'sideboard', while 'walk' comes from the Old English 'wealcan', which originally meant to roll, toss, or tread. The modern term took shape in nineteenth-century America, where seaside resorts laid raised wooden walkways over sand and marsh so visitors could stroll without sinking or soiling their shoes. Atlantic City built one of the earliest and most famous examples in 1870, and the word soon became the standard name for any planked promenade along a beach or waterfront. Because both halves are common everyday words, the spelling holds no surprises beyond remembering that it is written as one solid word rather than two.

How the word is built

• board (wooden plank, from Old English bord)
• walk (to go on foot, from Old English wealcan)