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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

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

Tibetans view swaths of China as their homeland, including the county of Kardze in Sichuan province on the eastern edge of the Tibetan plateau where Lobga was born.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026

The waves were recorded by ocean bottom seismometers positioned around the plateau and by instruments installed on nearby oceanic islands.

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

At the far end of the plateau boys had climbed into the trees.

From "The Sun Also Rises" by Ernest Hemingway

These formations are widespread across Utah's Wasatch and Uinta ranges and can also be found on the Colorado Plateau in the La Sal Mountains near Moab.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 28, 2026

Alex, 37, said selling her jewellery at the Christmas market on St George's Plateau for the past five years had been a "really great place to be".

From BBC ● Aug. 7, 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

The analysis also uncovered both genetic and cultural links to Yangshao Culture, a major Neolithic civilization that developed across the Loess Plateau near the Yellow River.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 21, 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

Oceanic plateaus are enormous elevated regions of seafloor formed by the eruption of vast quantities of lava.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 18, 2026

Multiple employees were perfecting the already-perfect plateaus of bell peppers and apples in the produce section.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 25, 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

“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

She nods and stares across the far side of the lake, to the distant icy mountains where the water pours over the plateaus.

From "The Last Cuentista" by Donna Barba Higuera

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

Like the Orange Free State, the Transvaal is an elevated pastoral plateau, or series of plateaux, broken by low ranges of hills.

From The World and Its People: Book VII Views in Africa by Anna B. Badlam

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

U.S. print-book sales plateaued in 2025, according to the book tracker Circana BookScan.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 10, 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

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

From Barron's ● Nov. 8, 2025

"There is also mounting evidence that the country's emissions are plateauing, with this year's levels expected to be lower than in 2024," said Li Shuo.

From BBC ● Sep. 24, 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