tableau

[ta-bloh, tab-loh]

noun

plural

tableaux, tableaus 

1. a picture, as of a scene.

2. a picturesque grouping of persons or objects; a striking scene.

3. a representation of a picture, statue, scene, etc., by one or more persons suitably costumed and posed.

4. Solitaire.,  the portion of a layout to which one may add cards according to suit or denomination.

tableau

/ ˈtæbləʊ /

noun

1. See tableau vivant

2. a pause during or at the end of a scene on stage when all the performers briefly freeze in position

3. any dramatic group or scene

4. logic short for semantic tableau

Word History and Origins

Origin of tableau¹

First recorded in 1690–1700; from French: “board, picture,” Middle French tablel, diminutive of table table

Word History and Origins

Origin of tableau¹

C17: from French, from Old French tablel a picture, diminutive of _table

Example Sentences

She was usually photographed gazing adoringly up at her husband, often while gathering their children around her in a beatific — and patriarchal — tableau.

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The youngest of those players is 52 and has hasn’t played for a dozen seasons, giving the whole tableau the feel of a tattered and worn museum exhibition.

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Polaroids, knick knacks and mementos are carefully arranged in various tableaus — much as he left them.

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In a show full of detailed tableaux, this was perhaps the most striking.

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In hindsight, the moment feels like a Rosetta Stone for his political aesthetics: a kind of populist cosplay that collapses grandeur and banality into the same tableau.

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Related Words

• illustration 
• spectacle