What does wallboard mean?
Wallboard is a thin sheet of board used to cover walls and form interior surfaces. It most often refers to plasterboard or gypsum board, which provide a smooth base for paint, wallpaper, or other finishes. The word is especially common in North American construction, while British English more often uses plasterboard; drywall is another familiar American term. In ordinary use, wallboard is a material rather than a particular decorative style: contractors may refer to installing, hanging, finishing, or painting wallboard. Because it is thinner and easier to handle than solid timber, it became especially useful for partitioning rooms and covering walls during construction and renovation. In sentences, wallboard is normally countable when referring to individual sheets, as in “a sheet of wallboard,” but it can also be used collectively to describe the material used in a building or project. Its practical meaning is therefore closely tied to modern interior construction, even though the compound itself is formed from much older English words.
nounWallboard is a thin sheet of plasterboard or gypsum board used to cover a wall, especially as a structural and decorative surface in interior construction. The term is also used more broadly for board used as a wall covering.
- A thin sheet of plasterboard or gypsum board used to cover a wall or provide an interior wall surface.
"The renovators installed new wallboard before applying the final coat of paint."
"The crew covered the exposed studs with wallboard before taping the seams."
"A stack of wallboard was delivered to the site before the renovation began."
The standard plural refers to individual sheets or pieces of wallboard.
"The installers cut several wallboards to fit around the doorway."
Wallboard turned walls from exposed masonry into smooth surfaces that could be finished almost like paper.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does wallboard come from?
Wallboard is an English compound formed from wall and board. Wall ultimately comes through Old French from Latin vallum, while board descends from Old English bord; border is related to the same Germanic root as board. In modern construction usage, the compound came to denote thin plaster or gypsum board used as a wall covering.
How wallboard is actually used
Wallboard is chiefly a North American term; British usage more commonly favors plasterboard, while drywall is especially common in American English. It is normally used as a countable material noun, though it can also occur in a mass sense when referring to the material collectively.
Easily confused with wallboard
Plasterboard is the especially common British term for gypsum or plaster-based board, while wallboard is a broader and particularly North American term for a board used to cover walls.