tableau

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a striking, vivid, or dramatic scene

   The rescuers arrived to a grim tableau of overturned cars and scattered luggage.

2. 2
   noun

   a group of people arranged motionlessly to represent a scene or picture

   The actors ended the play in a silent tableau beneath the archway.

Borrowed from French tableau ('picture, panel, scene'), a diminutive form related to table and ultimately Latin tabula ('board, tablet'). English extended the artistic term to any vividly arranged scene.

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