tableau
Americannoun
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a picture, as of a scene.
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a picturesque grouping of persons or objects; a striking scene.
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a representation of a picture, statue, scene, etc., by one or more persons suitably costumed and posed.
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Solitaire. the portion of a layout to which one may add cards according to suit or denomination.
noun
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See tableau vivant
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a pause during or at the end of a scene on stage when all the performers briefly freeze in position
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any dramatic group or scene
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logic short for semantic tableau
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of tableau
First recorded in 1690–1700; from French: “board, picture,” Middle French tablel, diminutive of table table
Explanation
A tableau is a dramatic picture. If you catch a glance into the Oval Office and see top advisers speaking to each other with intensity, you behold a dramatic political tableau. Tableau comes from the old French for "picture, or painted target." We usually use tableau to describe a vivid living scene. If you are a journalist and want to describe the tension in a courtroom, you might write a verbal tableau of the judge, the jury, and the witness box. People used to entertain themselves by doing tableau vivant, or living pictures, by reenacting perfectly the frozen scene of a famous painting.
Vocabulary lists containing tableau
The Diary of Anne Frank
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Quiz yourself on these words spoken by the man at the center of the "Laurel" / "Yanny" craze!
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The Handmaid's Tale
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The modular couch is anchored on each side with Art-Deco influenced side tables, lamps and light blue slipper chairs he designed, setting up a cozy tableau for hosting his friends.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 26, 2026
The surrounding landscape—a moody tableau of steel-gray skies and jagged mountains—is the work of AI.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 26, 2026
This is the dismal tableau today in Venezuela’s Maracaibo Basin, which, for much of the last century, was one of the globe’s leading sources of petroleum.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 15, 2026
But as the company grew, marketing its locations as a tableau in which to “stay awhile” ultimately meant there was a finite number of people they could sell coffee to per day.
From Slate • Dec. 22, 2025
Her arms are wrapped around her head and her wool blanket is twisted around her midsection and her pillow is jammed into the crack between mattress and wall—even in sleep, a tableau of friction.
From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
