board
/bɔːd/
"board" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“board” has 7 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #567. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #567
- frequency rank, English
- 4,121
- “B” headwords
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 2, 2026) - A relatively long, wide and thin piece of any material, usually wood or similar, often for use in construction or furniture-making.
Corpus desk
Index EN-board · board · English
board · rank #567 · 7 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-CORE #567
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 7 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,121
- PHOTO-FINISH words
Nearest frequency peer: words (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Frequency neighbourhood for “board”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- self
self
99,437 corpus weight
- students
students
99,436 corpus weight
- words
words
99,435 corpus weight
- board
board
99,434 corpus weight
- cost
cost
99,433 corpus weight
- cut
cut
99,432 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “board” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | board |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /bɔːd/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #567 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “board” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 7 spelling variants around board (IPA /bɔːd/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #567 among 4,121 “B” headwords. Wiktionary lists 15 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for board, with forms such as "baord", "bboard", and "boadr". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "bod", "bor", "born", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: A wooden board Board (duplicate bridge) From Middle English boord, boorde, bord, bourd, burd, from Old English bord, from Proto-West Germanic *bord, from Proto-Germanic *burdą (“board, plank; edge; table”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰers- (“tip, top”) + *-… The correct English form is board, spelled B-O-A-R-D.
Definition
- 1A relatively long, wide and thin piece of any material, usually wood or similar, often for use in construction or furniture-making.
- 2A device (e.g., switchboard) containing electrical switches and other controls and designed to control lights, sound, telephone connections, etc.
- 3A flat surface with markings for playing a board game.
- 4Short for blackboard, whiteboard, chessboard, surfboard, circuit board, message board (on the Internet), bulletin board, etc.
- 5A committee that manages the business of an organization, e.g., a board of directors.
- 6Regular meals in a place of lodging; the price paid for them.
- 7The side of a ship.
- 8The distance a sailing vessel runs between tacks when working to windward.
- 9The wall that surrounds an ice hockey rink.
- 10A long, narrow table, like that used in a medieval dining hall.
- 11Paper made thick and stiff like a board, for book covers, etc.; pasteboard.
- 12A level or stage having a particular two-dimensional layout.
- 13The portion of the playing field where creatures or minions can be placed (or played, summoned, etc.).
- 14A container for holding pre-dealt cards that is used to allow multiple sets of players to play the same cards.
- 15A Philippine provincial or Uruguayan departmental assembly or council.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how board appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke. He was dressed out in broad gaiters and bright tweeds, like an English tourist, and his face might have belonged to Dagon, idol of the Philistines.
Each player starts the game with four counters on the board.
Etymology
A wooden board Board (duplicate bridge) From Middle English boord, boorde, bord, bourd, burd, from Old English bord, from Proto-West Germanic *bord, from Proto-Germanic *burdą (“board, plank; edge; table”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰers- (“tip, top”) + *-dʰh₁eti or *bʰerH- (“to pierce; to strike”) + *-dʰh₁eti. The senses "food" and "council" are by metonymy from the sense "table." Cognates Cognate with Scots buird (“board; table”), Yola borde (“table”), West Frisian boerd (“board”), Dutch bord (“dish, plate; board, plank; sign”), boord (“border, boundary; bank, shore”), German Bord (“shelf”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish bord (“plank; table”), Elfdalian buord (“table”), Faroese and Icelandic borð (“board, plank; table”), Gothic *𐌱𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌳 (*baurd, “board, plank”) (whence 𐍆𐍉𐍄𐌿𐌱𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌳 (fōtubaurd, “footstool”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- baord
- bboard
- boadr
- boardd
- boarrd
- borad
- obard
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of board - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of September 2, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "board", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (7 here; floor ≥5).
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.