checkerboard

American  

[chek-er-bawrd, -bohrd] / ˈtʃɛk ərˌbɔrd, -ˌboʊrd /

noun

• checkerboards
  plural

1. a board marked off into 64 squares of two alternating colors, arranged in eight vertical and eight horizontal rows, on which checkers or chess is played.

2. a design resembling this.

   The garden was laid out in a checkerboard.

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verb (used with object)

1. to arrange in or mark with a checkerboard pattern.

   a wall checkerboarded with black and white tiles.

checkerboard British  

/ ˈtʃɛkəˌbɔːd /

noun

1. Also called (in Britain and certain other countries): draughtboard.  a square board divided into 64 squares of alternating colours, used for playing checkers or chess

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• checkerboards
  plural

Etymology

Origin of checkerboard

First recorded in 1765–75; checker ¹ + board

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

checkerboard checkerboards

The first laser pulse served as the "shake," breaking apart the electronic checkerboard.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 20, 2026

They include the removal of the black-and-white checkerboard floor, which fans of the show came to recognize and love.

From MarketWatch ● May 22, 2026

But to try one of Vancouver’s most beloved Chinese restaurants, make for Chinatown BBQ, where the checkerboard floors and hanging meat evoke a classic Cantonese chopshop.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 27, 2025

Likewise, the lawn in the back is decked out in checkerboard artificial turf.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 12, 2025

But the scale on which the Inka moved the pieces around the ethnic checkerboard would have excited their admiration.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann

Familiar tilings such as checkerboards and honeycombs repeat in a regular way.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 15, 2026

For a restaurant better known for cornbread and checkerboards than market volatility, the whole thing had the air of an identity crisis unfolding in real time.

From Salon ● Aug. 22, 2025

The wildfires that devastated Southern California, reducing entire neighborhoods to checkerboards of ash, have left behind tough questions about how to rebuild in this land of dry brush and wind.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 12, 2025

At an atomic level, 2D slices of solid materials can be thought of as giant checkerboards in which the pieces are electrons and the vacant spaces are “holes,” which behave like positively charged electrons.

From Science Magazine ● Dec. 20, 2023

Not being versed in heraldic lore I may say briefly that the shield bore checkerboards and conventionalized lilies in alternate quarterings, while the crest was a mailed arm holding a burning torch or cresset.

From In Jeopardy by Van Tassel Sutphen

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