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• 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.

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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

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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)

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plateau Scientific  

/ plă-tō′ /

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

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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

Both Po and So waves traveled significantly more slowly beneath the plateau.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 18, 2026

Jacob had a meteoric climb from being an unranked university student in 2024 to the world's top 50 a year later - but he has recently hit a plateau.

From BBC ● Jul. 2, 2026

According to IDC, global smart-ring shipments are expected to grow through 2027 but begin to plateau in the U.S. by 2028.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026

It’s no secret that vinyl records’ resurgence has hit a new plateau, outselling CDs for the first time since 1987 as of 2022, according to a report from the Recording Industry Assn. of America.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 5, 2026

The men already knew each other from Farmer’s work in the central plateau, and their friendship only strengthened after they met again at St. Jean Bosco.

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

On the Tibetan Plateau, dogs and humans even developed similar genetic solutions to life at high elevations.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 10, 2026

The team studied a marine sediment core collected from International Ocean Discovery Program Site U1475 on the Agulhas Plateau, about 500 kilometers south of South Africa.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 6, 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

But on the uncategorised final climb of Sunday's 183.9km stage from Champagnole to Plateau de Solaison, he matched Pogacar for the first time on such parcours.

From BBC ● Jul. 19, 2026

Yes, we fled to the east, into the Bonecruel Mountains and out into the fire-swept Plateau of Drume, but we left because we were not prepared for a barbarian horde to attack on griffin-back.”

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

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

Tesla’s stock revalues and sits at new plateaus every time it achieves one of its big goals, such as launching the best-selling car, electric or otherwise, in the world, an achievement of Tesla’s Model Y.

From Barron's ● Jan. 23, 2026

The atomic system displayed clear Shapiro steps, which are quantized voltage plateaus used worldwide to calibrate electrical voltage.

From Science Daily ● Dec. 23, 2025

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 not a gate that opened in the usual fashion, but one that dropped, a stout affair of logs copied from the form adopted by the inhabitants of the plateaux to the south.

From Long Odds by Harold Bindloss

It made sense for his family at the time because his wife’s business was growing, while he felt his career in content marketing had plateaued.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 23, 2026

The stock rallied from late 2023 to early 2025, but has plateaued since because investors are worried about how long the momentum could last.

From Barron's ● Jun. 10, 2026

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

From BBC ● Jun. 8, 2026

His wife, Cheryl Poulsen, says she feels the disease has plateaued since he began using Sunny.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 18, 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

It has been a bumpy road for the electric vehicle market as declining federal support and plateauing public interest have eaten away at sales.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 10, 2026

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

From Barron's ● Nov. 8, 2025

After plateauing for a while, it continued to fall, reaching a low point in mid-2013 that was 35% down from its highest.

From BBC ● May 12, 2025

Related Words

• elevation
• highland
• plain