running board
"running-board" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“running board” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 13
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A narrow board serving as a step beneath the doors of some cars.
Corpus desk
Index EN-running-board · running board · English
running board · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 13 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "R" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | running board |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 13 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “running board” in English
Rare enough to double-check
running board is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Zero misspellings are on record for running board in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. Our dataset records no confusable match here, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct English form is running board, spelled R-U-N-N-I-N-G- -B-O-A-R-D.
Definition
- 1A narrow board serving as a step beneath the doors of some cars.
- 2A narrow footway above the driving wheels of some steam locomotives, and along the sides of some diesel locomotives.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how running board appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
One of the "locomotors", a 72 h.p. machine for light yard shunting which can be driven by a shunter from the running board. [A long step on the side just above rail level]
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.