Meanings
plural whiteboards
- A writing board finished with a hard white material, which can be written upon using special non-permanent markers and subsequently wiped clean.
Discussion turns to the station whiteboard, which even has its own Twitter page. It's been in place for a number of years and is located right in the middle of the concourse. It's used to provide service information, upcoming alterations and event advice. There is also a 'Chuckle of the Day'.
2020 December 30, Richard Clinnick, “Greater Anglia strikes again...”, in Rail, page 431 more example
1995, Gary Wolf, "The Curse of Xanadu", Wired Magazine Mark Miller gave himself up to Xanadu's pull and rejoined the project full time. The new Xanadu site on Palo Alto's California Avenue was remodeled to resemble the environment at Xerox PARC. The programmers' offices opened onto a large common space, and the walls were covered with white board, which quickly became a tangle of multicolored lines, words, circles, and squiggles.
- broadlycomputingA collaborative tool allowing several users to write and draw on the same shared display.
present singular third person whiteboards · participle present whiteboarding · participle past whiteboarded · past whiteboarded
- To use a whiteboard, to write on a writeboard
Origin
From white + board, modelled on blackboard.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Arabic سَبُورَة بَيْضَاء
- سَبُورَة بَيْضَاء (sabūra bayḍāʔ)large vertical writing area
Basque arbel zuri
- arbel zurilarge vertical writing area
Bengali হোয়াইট বোর্ড
- হোয়াইট বোর্ড (hōẇaiṭ bōrḍo)large vertical writing area
Bulgarian бя́ла дъска́
- бя́ла дъска́ (bjála dăská)large vertical writing area
Catalan pissarra blanca
- pissarra blancalarge vertical writing area
Chinese Cantonese 白板
- 白板 (baak⁶ baan²)large vertical writing area
Chinese Mandarin 白板
- 白板 (báibǎn)large vertical writing area
Czech tabule, bílá tabule
- tabulelarge vertical writing area
- bílá tabulelarge vertical writing area
Danish whiteboard
- whiteboardlarge vertical writing area
Dutch whiteboard
- whiteboardlarge vertical writing area
Esperanto skribtabulo
- skribtabulolarge vertical writing area
Finnish valkotaulu
- valkotaulularge vertical writing area
French tableau, tableau blanc
- tableaularge vertical writing area
- tableau blanclarge vertical writing area
German Tafel, Weißwandtafel
- Tafellarge vertical writing area
- Weißwandtafellarge vertical writing area
- Whiteboardlarge vertical writing area
Greek λευκοπίνακας
- λευκοπίνακας (lefkopínakas)large vertical writing area
Hindi व्हाइटबोर्ड, वाइटबोर्ड
- व्हाइटबोर्ड (vhāiṭborḍ)large vertical writing area
- वाइटबोर्ड (vāiṭborḍ)large vertical writing area
Irish clár bán
- clár bánlarge vertical writing area
Italian lavagna, lavagna bianca
- lavagnalarge vertical writing area
- lavagna biancalarge vertical writing area
Japanese ホワイトボード, 白板
- ホワイトボード (howaitobōdo)large vertical writing area
- 白板 (hakuban)large vertical writing area
Korean 화이트보드, 백판
- 화이트보드 (hwaiteubodeu)large vertical writing area
- 백판 (baekpan)large vertical writing area
Latvian tāfele
- tāfelelarge vertical writing area
Lithuanian balta lenta, baltoji lenta
- balta lentalarge vertical writing area
- baltoji lentalarge vertical writing area
- interaktyvi lentacollaborative tool
- interaktyvioji lentacollaborative tool
Malay papan putih
- papan putihlarge vertical writing area
Māori papamā
- papamālarge vertical writing area
Norwegian Bokmål whiteboard, tusjtavle
- whiteboardlarge vertical writing area
- tusjtavlelarge vertical writing area
Polish tablica suchościeralna, tablica
- tablica suchościeralnalarge vertical writing area
- tablicalarge vertical writing area
- tablica multimedialnacollaborative tool
Portuguese quadro branco
- quadro brancolarge vertical writing area
Romanian tablă
- tablălarge vertical writing area
Russian доска́, бе́лая доска́
- доска́ (doská)large vertical writing area
- бе́лая доска́ (bélaja doská)large vertical writing area
Scottish Gaelic bòrd-geal
- bòrd-geallarge vertical writing area
Slovak biela tabuľa
- biela tabuľalarge vertical writing area
Spanish pizarra, pizarra blanca
- pizarralarge vertical writing area
- pizarra blancalarge vertical writing area
- pizarrón albolarge vertical writing area
Swahili ubao mweupe
- ubao mweupelarge vertical writing area
Swedish vit tavla, skrivtavla
- vit tavlalarge vertical writing area
- skrivtavlalarge vertical writing area
- whiteboardlarge vertical writing area
Thai ไวท์บอร์ด, กระดานขาว
- ไวท์บอร์ดlarge vertical writing area
- กระดานขาว (grà-daan-kǎao)large vertical writing area
Turkish beyaz tahta
- beyaz tahtalarge vertical writing area
Ukrainian бі́ла до́шка, до́шка
- бі́ла до́шка (bíla dóška)large vertical writing area
- до́шка (dóška)large vertical writing area
Urdu وائِٹ بورْڈ, تَخْتَۂ سَفید
- وائِٹ بورْڈ (vāiṭ borḍ)large vertical writing area
- تَخْتَۂ سَفیدlarge vertical writing area
Vietnamese bảng trắng
- bảng trắnglarge vertical writing area
Cite this entry
whiteboard. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/whiteboard
“whiteboard.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/whiteboard. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “whiteboard,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/whiteboard.
Source: whiteboard on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.