starboard
/ˈstɑɹ.bɚd/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.17 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
2
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The righthand side of a ship, boat or aircraft when facing the front, or fore or bow. Used to unambiguously refer to directions according to the sides of the vessel, rather than those of a crew member or object.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
One of the two traditional watches aboard a ship standing a watch in two.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "I see another vessel off the starboard side."
- "We're on starboard tack, so the other boat has to give way."
- "Now stow the mainsail as follows, preferably with the sail still lying in the starboard cockpit: beginning at the head, fold the upper section so that the upper two battens are aligned together; then tightly roll the sail from the head down to the foot. Reinsert the sail into its bag."
- "to starboard the helm"
- "The unlimited starring power is an arguably useful feature because it enables management of the starboard with notifications and the like, but I see nothing in the informal job description of a room owner that says they have any more right to spam the room than I do."
- "TFHRC#1 indicates a backquote in a chat message using fixed-width formatting, which is (correctly) output literally. FHRC#2 shows that the same backquote is misinterpreted by the sidebar starboard as a formatting character, wrecking the intended look and feel even more."
Etymology
From Middle English sterbord, stere-bourd, stere-burd, from Old English stēorbord, from Proto-West Germanic *steurubord, equivalent to steer + board (“side (of a ship)”), referring to ancient ships with the steering oar set to the right (to accommodate right-handed crew). Ships had to dock on their left (port) side because the steering oar on the right would get in the way, which is how the left became known as the port side.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: sterbord, stēorbord, *steurubord
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈstɑɹ.bɚd/
- British English: /ˈstɑː.bəd/