table

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A piece of furniture with a flat top and legs that you put things on or sit at.

   Please put the plates on the table.

2. 2
   noun

   A set of facts or numbers arranged in rows and columns.

   The results are shown in the table below.

3. 3
   noun

   The group of people sitting at a table together.

   She kept the whole table laughing with her jokes.

Common collocations

• book a table Verb + noun
• clear the table Verb + noun
• lay the table Verb + noun
• set the table Verb + noun

Inherited from Middle English table, tabel, tabil, tabul, from Old English tabele, tabul, tablu, tabule, tabula (“board”); also as tæfl, tæfel, an early Germanic borrowing of Latin tabula (“tablet, board, plank, chart”). The sense of “piece of furniture” is from Old French table, of same Latin origin; Old English used bēod or bord instead for this meaning: see board. Doublet of tabula and tavla.

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