freeboard
noun
freeboard is a noun meaning “The vertical distance between the waterline and the uppermost watertight deck of a vessel, or the vertical distance from the waterline up to the top…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled F-R-E-E-B-O-A-R-D, and it appears about once in every 12 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of freeboard is freeboards.
What does freeboard mean?
noun
- 1
The vertical distance between the waterline and the uppermost watertight deck of a vessel, or the vertical distance from the waterline up to the top of the gunwale (of an open boat).
By the time the whole team and all its equipment were loaded on board, there wasn't much freeboard anymore, and if the weather had been worse we might have had to postpone the trip.
- 2
The distance between a water level and the top of something that contains or restrains it (such as a dam).
- 3
The distance between the top of sea ice and the water level.
- 4
A type of skateboard which simulates the movement of a snowboard when used on a downhill course, allowing snowboarding techniques, which has an addition of two centerline casters that extend below the traditional skateboard wheels and bogies.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Forms of freeboard
- freeboards plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is freeboard?
Freeboard appears about once in every 12 million words in written English, the 102,771st most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Freeboard in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense nautical - vertical distance from waterline:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | franc-bord |
| Portuguese | bordo livre, borda livre |
| Spanish | borda libre, francobordo |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does freeboard come from?
From being a skateboard with an additional degree of freedom of movement (yaw) and some additional rocking (roll) movement.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).