motherboard

American  

[muhth-er-bawrd, -bohrd] / ˈmʌð ərˌbɔrd, -ˌboʊrd /

noun

Computers.

1. a rigid, slotted board upon which other boards that contain the basic circuitry of a computer or of a computer component can be mounted.

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motherboard British  

/ ˈmʌðəˌbɔːd /

noun

1. (in an electronic system) a printed circuit board through which signals between all other boards are routed

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motherboard Scientific  

/ mŭth′ər-bôrd′ /

1. The main circuit board of a computer, usually containing the central processing unit and main system memory as well as circuitry that controls the disk drives, keyboard, monitor, and other peripheral devices.

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Etymology

Origin of motherboard

mother ¹ + board

Example Sentences

For anyone who’s seen the inside of a desktop PC, there’s a CPU chip sitting in its own place in the motherboard, connected to separate slots filled with memory modules.

From Barron's • May 15, 2026

"They had the same motherboard communication system with the driver board, and with the lightboard and the soundboard. So they were somewhat interchangeable," Ashley said.

From Salon • Jun. 18, 2023

It is a sleek pod — half spaceship, half motherboard, with glass floors and a ceiling circuited with green neon tubes — on the eighth floor of a building in the bustling Shibuya district.

From New York Times • Feb. 25, 2023

There are 15 tiny screws underneath the casing, and a further three, equally tiny but a slightly different size, that attach the motherboard to the frame.

From BBC • Feb. 23, 2023

Eric’s computer: an AMD K-6 233 with a generic motherboard; an S3 video card, a 15-inch monitor; a 2.5 GB hard drive with 36 MB SDRAM.

From "Geeks: How Two Lost Boys Rode the Internet Out of Idaho" by Jon Katz

Related Words

• microchip