tableau

[ ta-bloh, tab-loh ]

/ tæˈbloʊ, ˈtæb loʊ /

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR tableau ON THESAURUS.COM

noun, plural tab·leaux [ta-blohz, tab-lohz] /tæˈbloʊz, ˈtæb loʊz/, tab·leaus.

a picture, as of a scene.

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

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

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

Words related to tableau

illustration, spectacle, representation, picture, view

Words nearby tableau

table tripod, table wine, table-hop, table-rapping, table-turning, tableau, tableau curtain, tableau vivant, tablecloth, tableful, tableland

Origin of tableau

1690–1700; < French: board, picture, Middle French tablel, diminutive of table table

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for tableau

A first-rank boulevardier in the 1960s tableau, his wives included one Rita Hayworth.
Inside North America’s First Islamic Art Museum|Shinan Govani|September 16, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Now those are destroyed, too, and the animals are strewn about, bloating and stinking, as if in a tableau of “Guernica.”
Inside the Gaza Schoolyard Massacre|Jesse Rosenfeld|July 26, 2014|DAILY BEAST
The tableau of five candidates on stage at first seemed more like a set of high school stereotypes than a political debate.
Iowa GOP Senate Debate Shows Divides|Ben Jacobs|April 25, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Everybody else was screaming; the noise was overwhelming, the tableau so terrifying that my brain locked up.
Don’t Shoot! Why Being a Hero Is Not That Easy|Dan Baum|March 12, 2013|DAILY BEAST

It contributed to the tableau of grievances inherited by every refugee.
Old Problems and New Realities|Ahmed Moor|November 22, 2012|DAILY BEAST
The old Moor turns his head as though he does not understand it; but the tableau in front is too dramatic to be lost.
Miss Caprice|St. George Rathborne
There was a tableau set against the gray, lichen-bossed rocks.
A Fortnight of Folly|Maurice Thompson
The first tableau of real sublimity, perhaps, occurs in following up a stream called Savage River.
Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. XII. No. 31. October, 1873.|Various
His sudden appearance transformed the debate into a tableau.
A King of Tyre|James M. Ludlow
The excitement was intense; the scene, dramatic, as if they were holding their pose for a tableau.
Polly the Pagan|Isabel Anderson

British Dictionary definitions for tableau

tableau

/ (ˈtæbləʊ) /

noun plural -leaux (-ləʊ, -ləʊz) or -leaus

See tableau vivant

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

any dramatic group or scene

logic short for semantic tableau

Word Origin for tableau

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

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012