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tableau

 
Dictionary: tab·leau   (tăb'', tă-blō') pronunciation
n., pl., tab·leaux, or tab·leaus (tăb'lōz', tă-blōz').
  1. A vivid or graphic description: The movie was a tableau of a soldier's life.
  2. A striking incidental scene, as of a picturesque group of people: "New public figures suddenly abound in the hitherto faceless totalitarian tableaux" (John McLaughlin).
  3. An interlude during a scene when all the performers on stage freeze in position and then resume action as before.
  4. A tableau vivant.

[French, from Old French tablel, diminutive of table, surface prepared for painting. See table.]


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Literary Dictionary: tableau
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tableau [tab‐loh] (plural ‐leaux or ‐leaus), a ‘picture’ formed by living persons caught in static attitudes. Tableaux were sometimes used at the ends of acts in 19th‐century melodrama and farce. The parlour‐game of tableaux vivants (‘living pictures’), in which living people adopt the postures of characters in a famous painting, was also a popular diversion in the 19th century, and is sometimes found in modern pageants. In a story or poem, a description of some group of people in more or less static postures is sometimes called a tableau.

Word Tutor: tableau
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pronunciation

IN BRIEF: A graphic description or representation.

pronunciation ...the audience saw actors from a distance, with a sense of tableau and formal separation. — Leo Braudy, U.S. critic, educator.

Wikipedia: Tableau
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Tableau (plural: tableaux; from the French diminutive of "table", sometimes meaning "picture") may mean:

See also


Translations: Tableau
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Dansk (Danish)
n. - tableau, opsats, opstilling

Nederlands (Dutch)
scène, tafereel, levend schilderij

Français (French)
n. - (Théât) tableau vivant, (gén) scène

Deutsch (German)
n. - Szene, Bild, Tableau

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - ταμπλό (βιβάν), εικόνα

Italiano (Italian)
scena

Português (Portuguese)
n. - quadro (m), retrato (m), quadro (m) vivo (Teat.)

Русский (Russian)
Живая картина, живописная сцена

Español (Spanish)
n. - cuadro, escena

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - tablå, scen, bild, tavla

中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
生动的场面, 戏剧性局面

中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 生動的場面, 戲劇性局面

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 그림 같은 묘사, 극적 장면, 활인화

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 絵画, 活人画, 絵画的な描写, 印象的な配列

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) مشهد - صورة - لوحه‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮תמונה מלאת-חיים, תיאור ציורי, סיטואציה דרמטית‬


Best of the Web: tableau
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Some good "tableau" pages on the web:


Math
mathworld.wolfram.com
 
 
 
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tableau vivant
In the Steppes of Central Asia
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Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
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