Jump To:

• plateau
  plateau

  noun

  a land area having a relatively level surface considerably raised above adjoining land on at least one side, and often cut by deep canyons.
• Plateau
  Plateau

  noun

  a state of central Nigeria, formed in 1976 from part of Benue-Plateau State: tin mining. Capital: Jos. Pop: 3 178 712 (2006). Area: 30 913 sq km (11 936 sq miles)

plateau

American  

[pla-toh, plat-oh] / plæˈtoʊ, ˈplæt oʊ /

noun

• plateaus,
  plural
• plateaux
  plural

1. a land area having a relatively level surface considerably raised above adjoining land on at least one side, and often cut by deep canyons.

2. a period or state of little or no growth or decline.

   to reach a plateau in one's career.

3. Psychology. a period of little or no apparent progress in an individual's learning, marked by an inability to increase speed, reduce number of errors, etc., and indicated by a horizontal stretch in a learning curve or graph.

4. a flat stand, as for a centerpiece, sometimes extending the full length of a table.

---

verb (used without object)

plateaued, plateauing

1. to reach a state or level of little or no growth or decline, especially to stop increasing or progressing; remain at a stable level of achievement; level off.

   After a period of uninterrupted growth, sales began to plateau.

verb (used with object)

plateaued, plateauing

1. to cause to remain at a stable level, especially to prevent from rising or progressing.

   Rising inflation plateaued sales income.

plateau ¹ British  

/ ˈplætəʊ /

noun

1. a wide mainly level area of elevated land

2. a relatively long period of stability; levelling off

   the rising prices reached a plateau

---

verb

1. to remain at a stable level for a relatively long period

Plateau ² British  

/ ˈplætəʊ /

noun

1. a state of central Nigeria, formed in 1976 from part of Benue-Plateau State: tin mining. Capital: Jos. Pop: 3 178 712 (2006). Area: 30 913 sq km (11 936 sq miles)

---

plateau Scientific  

/ plă-tō′ /

1. An elevated, comparatively level expanse of land. Plateaus make up about 45 percent of the Earth's land surface.

---

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• plateaus
  plural
• plateaux
  plural

Etymology

Origin of plateau

1785–95; < French; Old French platel flat object, diminutive of plat plate ¹

Explanation

A plateau is a high, flat area of land. The word has also been stretched to include a leveling off of progress. At first the children at the sleepover were running wild, but then their energy level reached a plateau. You can see the word plate inside plateau. Think flat like a plate, or think about mountains that look like tables you could set with plates — so flat the plates won't fall off. If you're a French speaker, this will be easier, as plateau derives from the French plat, "level."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

plateau Plateau plateaus plateaux plateaued plateauing

But if life expectancy has truly reached a plateau, therapies aimed at the biology of aging itself could become one of the paths scientists explore in an effort to push that limit higher.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 11, 2026

At its production plateau, Rosebank is expected to contribute around 10%-12% of group production, Cui writes after a fireside chat with Executive Chairman Yaniv Friedman at the Barclays CEO Energy-Power Conference.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 9, 2026

The northwestern part of Motte Rimrock Reserve, a biological field station on a rocky plateau managed by UC Riverside, also falls in an evacuation warning zone.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 25, 2026

The rocky terrain of the Bundelkhand plateau means it can store little groundwater.

From BBC ● Aug. 24, 2026

Farmer feared that PIH would be reduced to a tiny private charity, struggling to support its original project in the central plateau of Haiti.

From "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Tracy Kidder and Michael French

The flash flood, which began about 2:30 pm on Saturday, was caused by rainfall on the Kaibab Plateau, it said.

From Barron's ● Aug. 30, 2026

He thinks that companies have skipped to the next phase of the cycle, the Slope of Enlightenment, which is the step that occurs before the Plateau of Productivity.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026

To investigate the phenomenon, the team studied 50 rivers across the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the world's largest high-altitude cryosphere outside the polar regions.

From Science Daily ● Jun. 20, 2026

The simplest explanation for where the water comes from is the surface, particularly snowmelt from the Kaibab Plateau.

From Science Daily ● Jun. 2, 2026

Over the next ten minutes, ministers followed the protest of alien nerves in fortresses across the Bonecruel Mountains and the Plateau of Drume.

From "The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge" by M.T. Anderson and Eugene Yelchin

Instead of varying smoothly, the Hall voltage increases in distinct steps and plateaus.

From Science Daily ● Jun. 19, 2026

At CERAWeek, ConocoPhillips CEO Ryan Lance said providing new oil supply as shale plateaus is one of the industry’s big challenges.

From Barron's ● Mar. 28, 2026

Not with another four years on his contract, a current buyout price of $22.5 million and now a not-terrible finish to this strange season of all peaks and valleys and no plateaus.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 8, 2026

“Free cash flow per share grows even as revenue plateaus or declines slightly. The companies that execute this transition well are going to emerge as leaner, more profitable versions of themselves,” he says.

From MarketWatch ● Feb. 25, 2026

There was nothing but the wide expanse of flat desert, which reached toward the edge of the horizon, where massive sandstone plateaus stood that were as faint and round as orange clouds.

From "Healer of the Water Monster" by Brian Young

Connecting the realms, Martine sells crepes in the summer to members of the communes, who venture down from their fields and plateaux for this staple of French cuisine.

From BBC ● Dec. 16, 2023

Currently, it expects wage growth to plateaux around 3.9% late next year and into 2024.

From Reuters ● Nov. 16, 2022

From arboreal foothills, we climbed up to bare, boulder-strewn plateaux, before plunging back down to shaded valleys below.

From The Guardian ● Mar. 28, 2020

But with the new edition opening to just $21.5 million — less than either of the previous sequels, in real or inflated dollars — it will have trouble reaching those plateaux.

From Time ● Apr. 8, 2012

It was the journey's end, yet such is the magic charm of Asia that I would willingly have turned back at that moment to the snowy plateaux of Armenia and the savage mountains of Kurdistan.

From Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan, Volume II (of 2) Including a Summer in the Upper Karun Region and a Visit to the Nestorian Rayahs by Isabella L. (Isabella Lucy) Bird

The speeds of planes and cars may have plateaued, but one thing that has definitely sped up beyond all prior imagining is the speed of communication.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 13, 2026

And that has happened even as Tesla's car production numbers have plateaued.

From BBC ● Jun. 8, 2026

But revenue plateaued, and the convention pipeline was a little softer, he said.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 1, 2026

Chinese tech giant Huawei's revenue growth slowed last year, its annual report showed Tuesday, as sales of the company's consumer devices plateaued against a backdrop of sluggish domestic consumption.

From Barron's ● Mar. 31, 2026

My stock plummeted, and by high school, it plateaued.

From "Americanized" by Sara Saedi

The argument wasn’t anything new, and it certainly wasn’t influenced by plateauing sales or consumer complaints.

From Salon ● Jun. 14, 2026

With repetition, they got faster until plateauing, which he thinks was when the sorting task became automated.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026

Ember is confident that emissions from using fossil fuels to generate electricity are now plateauing and could begin a permanent decline in a few years.

From BBC ● Nov. 12, 2025

The previously maligned ADP gauge has confirmed the plateauing of payrolls outside the government sector.

From Barron's ● Nov. 8, 2025

At the same time, demand for electric vehicles is plateauing as the market gets saturated, Brauer said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 5, 2025

Related Words

• elevation
• highland
• plain