Larboard

//ˈlɑːbɔːd// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The left side of a ship, looking from the stern forward to the bow; port side. archaic, uncountable, usually

    "[…] harder beset And more endangered than when Argo passed Through Bosporus betwixt the justling rocks, Or when Ulysses on the larboard shunned Charybdis, and by th’ other whirlpool steered."

  2. 2
    the left side of a ship or aircraft to someone who is aboard and facing the bow or nose wordnet
Adjective
  1. 1
    located on the left side of a ship or aircraft wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
portleftbackboardbackboardcompanioncounterclockwise

Example

More examples

"[…] harder beset And more endangered than when Argo passed Through Bosporus betwixt the justling rocks, Or when Ulysses on the larboard shunned Charybdis, and by th’ other whirlpool steered."

Etymology

From Middle English ladde-bord, latebord, most likely referring to the side of the ship on which cargo was loaded. Changed to larboard in the 1500s by association with starboard. (Texts from the 1500s have spellings like lerbord, leereboord, larboord, corresponding to how they spell sterbord, steereboord, starboord.)

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.