Tableau Meaning
/ˈtæ.bləʊ/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounA striking and vivid representation or scene; a picture.
nounA vivid graphic scene of a group of people or objects arranged as in a painting or bas relief sculpture.
Sentence Examples
The actors created a beautiful and silent tableau on the stage.
A tableau is a group of models or motionless figures representing a scene.
The actors posed in a silent tableau to end the play.
CEFR Practice Quiz
At the end of the play, the actors formed a beautiful ____ to represent peace.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The performance ended with a beautiful ____ where all the actors stood perfectly still on the stage together today.
Word Origin & History
Unadapted borrowing from French tableau, from Old French tablel (“a surface which is used primarily for painting”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Stefania Chlouveraki, the project leader, stands at a long sorting table. She turns the colored fragments over and over in her fingertips. She fits each one into its place: a magnificent tableau of lions, crosses, pomegranate trees."
— 2014 December, Paul Salopek, “Blessed. Cursed. Claimed.”, in National Geographic:
"Folding chairs had been placed at prudent distances, and masks were dutifully worn. An Australian Labradoodle belonging to the home’s owners strutted among the guests. Despite the breezy suburban tableau, the occasion was fraught."
— 2020 July 30, David Zweig, “$25,000 Pod Schools: How Well-to-Do Children Will Weather the Pandemic”, in New York Times:
"For the tableau shown, there are three distinct procedures (one for each standard Young tableau of shape (2,1,1) with entries 1, 2, 3, and 4) for obtaining a Young tableau."
— 1994, Lynne M. Butler, Subgroup Lattices and Symmetric Functions, American Mathematical Society, →ISBN, page 92:
"[…] several scenes from the first act were consolidated into one tableau […]"
— 1994, Gerda Taranow, Sarah Bernhardt: The Art Within the Legend, page 158:
"As creative as it might have been, it appeared disjointed, with the sense of many things happening simultaneously, and the promenading performances jumping from one idea to the next – from a cancan to a gothic tableau featuring mock-beheaded women at the windows of the Conciergerie with red streamers that looked like macabre spurting blood."
— 2024 July 26, Arifa Akbar, “Paris Olympics opening ceremony review – soaring ambition deflated by patchy delivery”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
At the end of the play, the actors formed a beautiful ____ to represent peace.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The performance ended with a beautiful ____ where all the actors stood perfectly still on the stage together today.