Snowboarding

How to spell snowboarding

12 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce snowboarding

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does snowboarding mean?

1. nounThe sport of descending a snow-covered slope while standing on a single broad board fixed to both feet.

Snowboarding in a sentence

• The resort offers snowboarding lessons for complete beginners.

• A fall during snowboarding left him with a sprained wrist.

Where does snowboarding come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Snowboarding is a thoroughly modern English compound, built from two old native words. 'Snow' descends from Old English 'snaw', a word shared across the Germanic languages for frozen precipitation, while 'board' comes from Old English 'bord', meaning a plank or flat piece of timber. The activity itself only emerged in the 1960s and 1970s in the United States, when early enthusiasts strapped their feet to a single wide board and slid down slopes much as surfers ride waves. The word followed the same pattern as 'surfing' and 'skateboarding', simply adding the '-ing' suffix to name the sport. Because every part of the word is a plain English element joined transparently, the spelling holds few surprises beyond remembering it is written as one solid word.

How the word is built

• snow (frozen precipitation)
• board (flat plank)
• -ing (gerund/verb suffix)