Board vs. Table — What's the Difference?
By Maham Liaqat & Urooj Arif — Updated on March 28, 2024
A board is a flat piece of material used for various purposes, including construction and games, whereas a table is a piece of furniture with a flat top supported by legs, used for activities like eating and writing.
Difference Between Board and Table
Table of Contents
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Key Differences
A board is a versatile term referring to any flat, elongated piece of material such as wood or plastic. It's often used in construction, crafts, and as the playing surface for board games. On the other hand, a table is specifically designed as a piece of furniture, typically featuring a flat top supported by one or more legs, and is utilized for a variety of activities including dining, writing, working, and playing games.
While boards can be made from a wide range of materials including wood, plastic, and metal, depending on their intended use, tables are usually made from wood, metal, glass, or plastic, with their design and material often reflecting their use and the aesthetic preferences of the user or environment they are intended for.
The function of a board is highly dependent on its context, ranging from structural elements in buildings to components of games. Conversely, a table's function is generally more defined, primarily serving as a surface on which objects can be placed for various activities, including eating, writing, or displaying items.
In terms of customization and DIY projects, boards offer a high degree of flexibility. They can be cut, shaped, and assembled into a wide variety of items, including homemade furniture or decorative items. Tables, while also customizable, typically require a greater level of skill to create or modify due to their more complex structure and the need for stability and balance.
Safety considerations for boards depend on their application, including the need for proper handling to avoid splinters or exposure to toxic materials in certain types of manufactured boards. For tables, safety considerations include ensuring stability to prevent tipping, especially in environments with children, and selecting materials that are easy to clean and maintain.
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Comparison Chart
Definition
A flat, elongated piece of material used for various purposes.
A piece of furniture with a flat top and one or more legs.
Material
Wood, plastic, metal, etc., depending on use.
Commonly wood, metal, glass, or plastic.
Primary Use
Construction, crafts, games.
Eating, writing, working, displaying items.
Customization
Highly flexible for DIY projects.
Requires skill for DIY, focused on stability and balance.
Safety
Depends on application; handling concerns.
Stability to prevent tipping; material safety for cleanliness.
Compare with Definitions
Board
A flat piece of material used in construction or as a surface for games.
He cut the board to size for the shelf.
Table
A piece of furniture with a flat top and legs used for activities.
They gathered around the table for dinner.
Board
Can be made of wood, plastic, or metal.
The game was played on a wooden board.
Table
Often made from wood, metal, or glass.
The glass table added elegance to the room.
Board
Versatile in application, from building to crafts.
She painted the board for her art project.
Table
Can be decorative and functional in homes and offices.
The office table was both spacious and stylish.
Board
Used in a variety of settings, including homes and construction sites.
The construction team laid the board as flooring.
Table
Central to dining, writing, and working activities.
He cleared the table for his writing project.
Board
Requires handling care for safety.
Wear gloves when handling the rough board.
Table
Stability and material safety are key considerations.
The sturdy table was safe for the children to use.
Board
A long flat slab of sawed lumber; a plank.
Table
A piece of furniture with a flat top and one or more legs, providing a level surface for eating, writing, or working at
She put the plate on the table
He rang the restaurant to book a table for lunch
Board
A long flat slab of another material, used as a structural member.
Table
A set of facts or figures systematically displayed, especially in columns
The population has grown, as shown in table 1
Board
A flat, rigid, often rectangular piece of material used as a surface upon which to work
A cutting board.
An ironing board.
Table
A flat, typically rectangular, vertical surface; a panel.
Board
A blackboard.
Table
Present formally for discussion or consideration at a meeting
More than 200 amendments to the bill have already been tabled
Board
A bulletin board.
Table
Postpone consideration of
I'd like the issue to be tabled for the next few months
Board
A scoreboard.
Table
Strengthen (a sail) by making a hem at the edge.
Board
A toteboard.
Table
A piece of furniture usually supported by one or more legs and having a flat top surface on which objects can be placed
A dinner table.
A poker table.
Board
A flat piece of material designed or equipped to be ridden as a sport, especially a snowboard, skateboard, or surfboard.
Table
The objects laid out for a meal on this article of furniture.
Board
A diving board.
Table
The food and drink served at meals; fare
Kept an excellent table.
Board
A backboard.
Table
The company of people assembled around a table, as for a meal.
Board
A flat, rigid piece of material on which a game is played, such as a checkerboard or chessboard.
Table
Either of the leaves of a backgammon board.
Board
A table at which official meetings are held; a council table.
Table
Tables(Obsolete) The game of backgammon.
Board
An organized body of administrators or investigators
A board of trustees.
A board of directors.
Table
A plateau or tableland.
Board
A table, especially one set for serving food.
Table
A flat facet cut across the top of a precious stone.
Board
Food or meals considered as a whole
Board and lodging.
Table
A stone or gem cut in this fashion.
Board
(Sports) The wooden structure enclosing an area for skating, such as the ice on which hockey is played, or enclosing a playing area, as for indoor soccer.
Table
The front part of the body of a stringed instrument.
Board
A theater stage.
Table
The sounding board of a harp.
Board
(Basketball) A rebound.
Table
(Architecture) A raised horizontal surface or continuous band on an exterior wall; a stringcourse.
Board
An electrical-equipment panel.
Table
A part of the human palm framed by four lines, analyzed in palmistry.
Board
(Computers) A circuit board.
Table
An orderly arrangement of data, especially one in which the data are arranged in columns and rows in an essentially rectangular form.
Board
The side of a ship.
Table
An abbreviated list, as of contents; a synopsis.
Board
A leeboard.
Table
An engraved slab or tablet bearing an inscription or device.
Board
A centerboard.
Table
(Anatomy) The inner or outer flat layer of bones of the skull separated by the diploe.
Board
(Obsolete) A border or edge.
Table
Tables A system of laws or decrees; a code
The tables of Moses.
Board
To cover or close with boards
Board up a broken window.
Table
To put or place on a table.
Board
To furnish with meals in return for pay.
Table
To postpone consideration of (a piece of legislation, for example); shelve.
Board
To house where board is furnished
Board a horse at a stable.
Table
To enter in a list or table; tabulate.
Board
To enter or go aboard (a vehicle or ship).
Table
Furniture with a top surface to accommodate a variety of uses.
Board
To allow (passengers) on board.
Table
An item of furniture with a flat top surface raised above the ground, usually on one or more legs.
Set that dish on the table over there, please.
Board
(Nautical) To come alongside (a ship).
Table
The board or table-like furniture on which a game is played, such as snooker, billiards, or draughts.
Board
(Sports) To force (an opposing hockey player) into the boards with a body check.
Table
A flat tray which can be used as a table.
Board
(Obsolete) To approach.
Table
A supply of food or entertainment.
The baron kept a fine table and often held large banquets.
Board
To receive meals or food and lodging as a paying customer.
Table
A service of Holy Communion.
Board
(Sports) To use a snowboard, skateboard, surfboard, or similar item.
Table
(backgammon) One half of a backgammon board, which is divided into the inner and outer table.
Board
A relatively long, wide and thin piece of any material, usually wood or similar, often for use in construction or furniture-making.
Table
A group of people at a table, for example, for a meal, meeting or game.
Board
A device (e.g., switchboard) containing electrical switches and other controls and designed to control lights, sound, telephone connections, etc.
Table
The lineup of players at a given table.
That's the strongest table I've ever seen at a European Poker Tour event
Board
A flat surface with markings for playing a board game.
Each player starts the game with four counters on the board.
Table
A group of players meeting regularly to play a campaign.
Board
Short for blackboard, whiteboard, chessboard, surfboard, circuit board, message board (on the Internet), etc.
Table
A group of diners at a given table or tables.
Table 9 wants another round of beers.
John always gets the best tips because he gets the best tables! It's not fair!
Board
A committee that manages the business of an organization, e.g., a board of directors.
We have to wait to hear back from the board.
Table
A two-dimensional presentation of data.
Board
(uncountable) Regular meals or the amount paid for them in a place of lodging.
Room and board
Table
A matrix or grid of data arranged in rows and columns.
Board
(nautical) The side of a ship.
Table
A collection of arithmetic calculations arranged in a table, such as multiplications in a multiplication table.
The children were practising multiplication tables.
Don’t you know your tables?
Here is a table of natural logarithms.
Board
(nautical) The distance a sailing vessel runs between tacks when working to windward.
Table
A lookup table, most often a set of vectors.
Board
The wall that surrounds an ice hockey rink.
Table
(sports) A visual representation of a classification of teams or individuals based on their success over a predetermined period.
Board
(archaic) A long, narrow table, like that used in a medieval dining hall.
Table
(musical instruments) The top of a stringed instrument, particularly a member of the violin family: the side of the instrument against which the strings vibrate.
Board
Paper made thick and stiff like a board, for book covers, etc.; pasteboard.
To bind a book in boards
Table
The flat topmost facet of a cut diamond.
Board
(video games) A level or stage having a particular layout.
Table
To tabulate; to put into a table or grid.
To table fines
Board
A container for holding pre-dealt cards that is used to allow multiple sets of players to play the same cards. Board (duplicate bridge)
Table
To supply (a guest, client etc.) with food at a table; to feed.
Board
A rebound.
Table
(obsolete) To delineate; to represent, as in a picture; to depict.
Board
(transitive) To step or climb onto or otherwise enter a ship, aircraft, train or other conveyance.
It is time to board the aircraft.
Table
(non-US) To put on the table of a commission or legislative assembly; to propose for formal discussion or consideration, to put on the agenda.
Board
(transitive) To provide someone with meals and lodging, usually in exchange for money.
To board one's horse at a livery stable
Table
To remove from the agenda, to postpone dealing with; to shelve to indefinitely postpone consideration or discussion of something.
The legislature tabled the amendment, so they will not be discussing it until later.
The motion was tabled, ensuring that it would not be taken up until a later date.
Board
(transitive) To receive meals and lodging in exchange for money.
Table
To join (pieces of timber) together using coaks.
Board
To capture an enemy ship by going alongside and grappling her, then invading her with a boarding party
Table
To put on a table.
Board
(intransitive) To obtain meals, or meals and lodgings, statedly for compensation
Table
(nautical) To make board hems in the skirts and bottoms of (sails) in order to strengthen them in the part attached to the bolt-rope.
Board
To approach (someone); to make advances to, accost.
Table
A smooth, flat surface, like the side of a board; a thin, flat, smooth piece of anything; a slab.
A bagnio paved with fair tables of marble.
Board
To cover with boards or boarding.
To board a house
Table
A thin, flat piece of wood, stone, metal, or other material, on which anything is cut, traced, written, or painted; a tablet
And the Lord said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first, and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables, which thou brakest.
And stand there with your tables to gleanThe golden sentences.
Board
To hit (someone) with a wooden board.
Table
Any smooth, flat surface upon which an inscription, a drawing, or the like, may be produced.
The opposite walls are painted by Rubens, which, with that other of the Infanta taking leave of Don Philip, is a most incomparable table.
St. Antony has a table that hangs up to him from a poor peasant.
Board
(transitive) To write something on a board, especially a blackboard or whiteboard.
Table
Hence, in a great variety of applications: A condensed statement which may be comprehended by the eye in a single view; a methodical or systematic synopsis; the presentation of many items or particulars in one group; a scheme; a schedule.
Board
A piece of timber sawed thin, and of considerable length and breadth as compared with the thickness, - used for building, etc.
Table
A view of the contents of a work; a statement of the principal topics discussed; an index; a syllabus; a synopsis; as, a table of contents.
Board
A table to put food upon.
Fruit of all kinds . . . She gathers, tribute large, and on the boardHeaps with unsparing hand.
Table
An article of furniture, consisting of a flat slab, board, or the like, having a smooth surface, fixed horizontally on legs, and used for a great variety of purposes, as in eating, writing, or working.
We may againGive to our tables meat.
The nymph the table spread.
Board
Hence: What is served on a table as food; stated meals; provision; entertainment; - usually as furnished for pay; as, to work for one's board; the price of board.
Table
A list of substances and their properties; especially, the a list of the elementary substances with their atomic weights, densities, symbols, etc.
Board
A table at which a council or court is held.
Both better acquainted with affairs than any other who sat then at that board.
We may judge from their letters to the board.
Table
Hence, food placed on a table to be partaken of; fare; entertainment; as, to set a good table.
Board
A square or oblong piece of thin wood or other material used for some special purpose, as, a molding board; a board or surface painted or arranged for a game; as, a chessboard; a backgammon board.
Table
Any collection and arrangement in a condensed form of many particulars or values, for ready reference, as of weights, measures, currency, specific gravities, etc.; also, a series of numbers following some law, and expressing particular values corresponding to certain other numbers on which they depend, and by means of which they are taken out for use in computations; as, tables of logarithms, sines, tangents, squares, cubes, etc.; annuity tables; interest tables; astronomical tables, etc.
Board
Paper made thick and stiff like a board, for book covers, etc.; pasteboard; as, to bind a book in boards.
Table
The company assembled round a table.
I drink the general joy of the whole table.
Board
The stage in a theater; as, to go upon the boards, to enter upon the theatrical profession.
Table
The arrangement or disposition of the lines which appear on the inside of the hand.
Mistress of a fairer tableHath not history for fable.
Board
The border or side of anything.
Table
One of the two, external and internal, layers of compact bone, separated by diploë, in the walls of the cranium.
Board
To cover with boards or boarding; as, to board a house.
Table
A stringcourse which includes an offset; esp., a band of stone, or the like, set where an offset is required, so as to make it decorative. See Water table.
Board
To go on board of, or enter, as a ship, whether in a hostile or a friendly way.
You board an enemy to capture her, and a stranger to receive news or make a communication.
Table
The board on the opposite sides of which backgammon and draughts are played.
This is the ape of form, monsieur the nice,That, when he plays at tables, chides the dice.
Board
To enter, as a railway car.
Table
A circular plate of crown glass.
A circular plate or table of about five feet diameter weighs on an average nine pounds.
Board
To furnish with regular meals, or with meals and lodgings, for compensation; to supply with daily meals.
Table
The upper flat surface of a diamond or other precious stone, the sides of which are cut in angles.
Board
To place at board, for compensation; as, to board one's horse at a livery stable.
Table
A plane surface, supposed to be transparent and perpendicular to the horizon; - called also perspective plane.
Board
To obtain meals, or meals and lodgings, statedly for compensation; as, he boards at the hotel.
We are several of us, gentlemen and ladies, who board in the same house.
Table
The part of a machine tool on which the work rests and is fastened.
Board
To approach; to accost; to address; hence, to woo.
I will board her, though she chide as loudAs thunder when the clouds in autumn crack.
Table
To form into a table or catalogue; to tabulate; as, to table fines.
Board
A committee having supervisory powers;
The board has seven members
Table
To delineate, as on a table; to represent, as in a picture.
Tabled and pictured in the chambers of meditation.
Board
A flat piece of material designed for a special purpose;
He nailed boards across the windows
Table
To supply with food; to feed.
Board
A stout length of sawn timber; made in a wide variety of sizes and used for many purposes
Table
To insert, as one piece of timber into another, by alternate scores or projections from the middle, to prevent slipping; to scarf.
Board
A board on which information can be displayed to public view
Table
To lay or place on a table, as money.
Board
A flat portable surface (usually rectangular) designed for board games;
He got out the board and set up the pieces
Table
In parliamentary usage, to lay on the table; to postpone, by a formal vote, the consideration of (a bill, motion, or the like) till called for, or indefinitely.
Board
Food or meals in general;
She sets a fine table
Room and board
Table
To enter upon the docket; as, to table charges against some one.
Board
Electrical device consisting of an insulated panel containing switches and dials and meters for controlling other electrical devices;
He checked the instrument panel
Suddenly the board lit up like a Christmas tree
Table
To make board hems in the skirts and bottoms of (sails) in order to strengthen them in the part attached to the boltrope.
Board
A printed circuit that can be inserted into expansion slots in a computer to increase the computer's capabilities
Table
To live at the table of another; to board; to eat.
Board
A table at which meals are served;
He helped her clear the dining table
A feast was spread upon the board
Table
A set of data arranged in rows and columns;
See table 1
Board
Get on board of (trains, buses, ships, aircraft, etc.)
Table
A piece of furniture having a smooth flat top that is usually supported by one or more vertical legs;
It was a sturdy table
Board
Live and take one's meals at or in;
She rooms in an old boarding house
Table
A piece of furniture with tableware for a meal laid out on it;
I reserved a table at my favorite restaurant
Board
Lodge and take meals (at)
Table
Flat tableland with steep edges;
The tribe was relatively safe on the mesa but they had to descend into the valley for water
Board
Provide food and lodging (for);
The old lady is boarding three men
Table
A company of people assembled at a table for a meal or game;
He entertained the whole table with his witty remarks
Table
Food or meals in general;
She sets a fine table
Room and board
Table
Hold back to a later time;
Let's postpone the exam
Common Curiosities
What is a board?
A board is a flat piece of material used for various purposes, including construction and crafts.
How do materials for boards and tables differ?
Materials for boards vary widely based on use, including wood and plastic, whereas tables are typically made from wood, metal, glass, or plastic, focusing on aesthetics and functionality.
What defines a table?
A table is defined as a piece of furniture with a flat top supported by legs, used for a variety of activities.
What is the significance of a table's legs?
A table's legs support the flat top and contribute to the table's stability and aesthetic design.
What are the primary uses of a table?
Tables are primarily used for dining, working, writing, and displaying items.
How do safety considerations for boards and tables differ?
Safety considerations for boards focus on handling and material risks, while for tables, stability and material safety for cleanliness are paramount.
Are all tables made of wood?
Not all tables are made of wood; they can also be made of metal, glass, or plastic.
What maintenance does a table require?
Table maintenance can include cleaning, protecting the surface, and tightening loose joints.
Can boards be decorative?
Yes, boards can be decorative, especially when painted or used in crafts.
Can a board be used to make a table?
Yes, boards can be used as the raw material in the construction of a table, especially for DIY projects.
How do boards contribute to construction?
Boards are essential in construction for structural support, flooring, and wall coverings.
Is a board considered furniture?
Typically, a board itself is not considered furniture but can be used to make furniture, including tables.
How do I choose the right table for my home?
Consider the table's intended use, size, material, and how it complements your home's decor.
Can I use a board as a temporary table?
Yes, a board can serve as a temporary table surface if supported properly.
Why might someone prefer a table made from glass?
Glass tables offer a modern, elegant look and can make spaces appear larger and more open.
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Written by
Maham Liaqat
Co-written by
Urooj ArifUrooj is a skilled content writer at Ask Difference, known for her exceptional ability to simplify complex topics into engaging and informative content. With a passion for research and a flair for clear, concise writing, she consistently delivers articles that resonate with our diverse audience.
