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View synonyms for tableau

tableau

[ ta-bloh, tab-loh ]

noun

, plural tab·leaux [ta-, blohz, tab, -lohz], tab·leaus.
  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. a pause during or at the end of a scene on stage when all the performers briefly freeze in position
  2. any dramatic group or scene
  3. logic short for semantic tableau


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Word History and Origins

Origin of tableau1

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

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Word History and Origins

Origin of tableau1

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

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Example Sentences

The tiny tableaus chronicling the boys’ flight fittingly range from extraordinarily realistic to fantastical, alternately portraying the vastness and claustrophobic aspects of their ordeal.

John Doyle’s Assassins, now playing off-Broadway at the Classic Stage Company, has his assassins form their final tableau in front of footage from the January 6 Capitol riot.

From Vox

I assume I will sell my work until people stop buying it, both out of necessity and because it does bring me joy to make a silly little thing that someone will incorporate into the tableau of their home.

From Vox

Most of the movie’s tableaus—like the one featuring the distracted waiter—are one-offs.

From Time

Raya and the Last Dragon offers a tableau of cultural references inspired by the whole of Southeast Asia.

From Time

A first-rank boulevardier in the 1960s tableau, his wives included one Rita Hayworth.

Now those are destroyed, too, and the animals are strewn about, bloating and stinking, as if in a tableau of “Guernica.”

The tableau of five candidates on stage at first seemed more like a set of high school stereotypes than a political debate.

The next minute they are frozen in an eerie, extended tableau vivant——a still-life that's not actually still.

Everybody else was screaming; the noise was overwhelming, the tableau so terrifying that my brain locked up.

The Tableau des Saints is a still more severe criticism of the heroes of Christendom.

Her interruption of the tableau sounded oddly abrupt to ears used to her pleasant accents.

The curtain fell on a tableau: the Holidays, with their flags and banners, old Father Time, and the happy children.

Let me enjoy the beauty of the tableau, no matter how it is produced.

The tableau answered for itself before the words had left his lips.

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tabletableau curtain