tabletop

American  

[tey-buhl-top] / ˈteɪ bəlˌtɒp /

noun

tabletops plural

1. a surface forming or suggesting the top of a table.

2. a photograph of an arrangement of objects on top of a table.

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adjective

1. intended for use on the top of a table or the like.

2. noting or relating to an arrangement of objects, especially miniatures or models, as would be appropriate to the top of a table.

3. noting or relating to a type of game that requires the physical presence of players and the manipulation of game pieces, in contrast to video games.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• tabletops
  plural

Etymology

Origin of tabletop

First recorded in 1800–10; table + top ¹

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

tabletop tabletops

In 1946, the wildly prolific Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdős asked, in essence, how to place dots on a tabletop so that the greatest number of pairs of dots are the same distance apart.

From Slate ● Jun. 22, 2026

Dungeons & Dragons is a tabletop roleplaying game where players create fantasy characters and roll dice to determine whether their actions, like a sword attack or a persuasive argument, are successful against their foes.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 24, 2026

Hasbro attributed the higher revenue in part to continued strength in tabletop game Magic: The Gathering.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 20, 2026

To investigate this possibility, the researchers designed a tabletop experiment with a two-dimensional array of freely rotating magnetic elements positioned above a second magnetic layer.

From Science Daily ● Mar. 22, 2026

Nat pointed at the table a few feet away, and when Jinny glanced down at it, she recognized a lumpy tuft of tangled black hair sticking out from under the tabletop.

From "Orphan Island" by Laurel Snyder

Your television itself may be obsolete, replaced by wraparound digital glasses or interactive tabletops that transform how you watch the Super Bowl, the World Cup or Wimbledon.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 12, 2026

She also piles fresh lemons on tabletops, a tip from a friend who suggested it as a way of adding color.

From Seattle Times ● Dec. 8, 2023

Tablets placed on tabletops would have been friendlier, even if less suitably chaotic for the films’ battle-connected references.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 7, 2023

But Farmer, Li, and colleagues only cleaned horizontal surfaces like floors and tabletops, not the walls and ceilings, which may be where the remaining emissions originated.

From National Geographic ● Oct. 13, 2023

At the word “congratulations” the room erupts, not into applause, but into the pounding of fists on tabletops.

From "Divergent" by Veronica Roth