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plateau

[pla-toh or, especially Brit., plat-oh]

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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.

a period or state of little or no growth or decline: to reach a plateau in one's career.

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.

a flat stand, as for a centerpiece, sometimes extending the full length of a table.

verb (used without object)

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.

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Plateau is one of our favorite verbs.

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to introduce subtleties into or argue subtly about.

to flee; abscond:

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verb (used with object)

to cause to remain at a stable level, especially to prevent from rising or progressing: Rising inflation plateaued sales income.

Origin:
1785–95; < French; Old French platel flat object, diminutive of plat plate¹

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To plateau

Example Sentences

The desert plateau on which they stand was once isolated.

And a plateau in the obesity rate would make some kind of reform a bit less expensive.

As lottery revenues plateau and budget pictures worsen, students may see some state merit scholarships become less generous.

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Collins

World English Dictionary

plateau (ˈplætəʊ)

—n , pl -eaus, -eaux
1.	a wide mainly level area of elevated land
2.	a relatively long period of stability; levelling off: the rising prices reached a plateau

—vb
3.	to remain at a stable level for a relatively long period

[C18: from French, from Old French platel something flat, from plat flat; see plate]

Plateau (ˈplætəʊ)

—n
	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)

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

plateau

1796, "elevated tract of relatively level land," from Fr. plateau, from O.Fr. platel (12c.) "flat piece of metal, wood, etc.," dim. of plat "flat surface or thing," noun use of adj. plat (see plat). Meaning "stage at which no progress is apparent" is attested from 1897, originally

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in psychology of learning. The verb is attested from 1952, from the noun.

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American Heritage

Science Dictionary

plateau

(plā-tō') Pronunciation Key
An elevated, comparatively level expanse of land. Plateaus make up about 45 percent of the Earth's land surface.

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Matching Quote

"Here in Wellfleet, this pure sand plateau, known to sailors as the Table-lands of Eastham, on account of its appearance, as seen from the ocean ... stretched away northward from the southern boundary of the town, without a particle of vegetation,—as level almost as a table,—for two and a half or three miles, or as far as the eye could reach; slightly rising towards the ocean, then stooping to the beach, by as steep a slope as sand could lie on, and as regular as a military engineer could desire. It was like the escarped rampart of a stupendous fortress, whose glacis was the beach, and whose champaign the ocean. From its surface we overlooked the greater part of the Cape. In short, we were traversing a desert, with the view of an autumnal landscape of extraordinary brilliancy, a sort of Promised Land, on the one hand, and the ocean on the other. Yet, though the prospect was so extensive, and the country for the most part destitute of trees, a house was rarely visible,—we never saw one from the beach,—and the solitude was that of the ocean and the desert combined. A thousand men could not have seriously interrupted it, but would have been lost in the vastness of the scenery as their footsteps in the sand."

-Henry David Thoreau

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plateau

pla·teau