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tableau

UK/ˈtæ.bləʊ/US/tæˈbloʊ/
nounC2Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #13,365 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: tableaus

A tableau is a striking scene held motionless like a picture. A tableau on the stage.

A tableau vivant was a Victorian entertainment in which people posed as a famous painting. The plural is tableaux, which keeps the French spelling.

Joseolgon · CC BY 4.0

Definitions of tableau

  1. 1nountableauA striking scene held motionless like a picture.C2

    “The last tableau held for about ten seconds before the curtain.”

tableau is a scene.

Where it comes from

French tableau means a picture, from Old French tablel, a small board or panel.

  1. Old French

    tablel — a surface which is used primarily for painting

  2. French

    tableau

  3. English, today

    tableau

French tableau, from Old French tablel (“a surface which is used primarily for painting”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

tableau in the wild

  • A tableau vivant is a static scene containing one or more actors or models.

    Tableau vivant

  • In film or live theatre, the performers sometimes briefly freeze in position for a tableau vivant effect.

    Tableau vivant

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.