spring·board

[spring-bawrd, -bohrd]
noun
1.
a flexible board, projecting over water, from which divers leap or spring.
2.
a flexible board used as a takeoff in vaulting, tumbling, etc., to increase the height of leaps.
3.
something that supplies the impetus or conditions for a beginning, change, or progress; a point of departure: a lecture to serve as a springboard for a series of seminars.
verb (used with object), verb (used without object)
4.
to impel or launch on or as if on a springboard.

Origin:
1865–70; spring + board

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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00:10
Springboard is always a great word to know.
So is doohickey. Does it mean:
a gadget; dingus; thingumbob.
a children's mummer's parade, as on the Fourth of July, with prizes for the best costumes.
Collins
World English Dictionary
springboard (ˈsprɪŋˌbɔːd) [Click for IPA pronunciation guide]
 
n
1.  a flexible board, usually projecting low over the water, used for diving
2.  a similar board used for gaining height or momentum in gymnastics
3.  (Austral), (NZ) a board inserted into the trunk of a tree at some height above the ground on which a lumberjack stands to chop down the tree
4.  anything that serves as a point of departure or initiation

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Example sentences
It became the springboard for her professional life.
It might give them a springboard to continue with better funding if they were
  doing other sciences as well.
Synchronized divers jumped from the three-meter springboard, undoubtedly happy
  to get into water warmer than the rain and the air.
Our natural concepts are as much a hindrance to thought as they are a
  springboard for it.
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