Plateau

How to spell plateau

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce plateau

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does plateau mean?

1. nounAn area of fairly level high ground raised sharply above the land around it.
2. verbTo reach a stable level and stop rising or progressing.
3. nounA period or state during which progress holds steady without rising.

Plateau in a sentence

• noun

  The village sat on a windswept plateau above the river valley.

• verb

  Sales tend to plateau once the novelty of a product fades.

• noun

  After rapid early gains, her training reached a frustrating plateau.

• noun

  The hikers crossed the rocky plateau before descending the far slope.

• verb

  His weight loss began to plateau after the first three months.

• noun

  The company's revenue hit a plateau and stayed flat for two years.

Where does plateau come from?

Language of origin: French

This word came into English from French in the early 1800s, where plateau meant a flat raised piece of ground, but also a tray or flat dish. The French built it on the Old French word platel, a little flat thing, which in turn traces back to plat, meaning 'flat', a word that also gave us 'plate' and 'platter'. The ultimate source is the Greek platus, meaning 'broad' or 'flat', which spread through Latin into the Romance languages. The figurative sense of a stable level period, as in progress that levels off, developed only in the twentieth century. The tricky spelling, that silent French ending '-eau', is the clearest fingerprint of its French origin, and it is exactly where confident writers stumble, since the sound 'oh' gives no hint of the four letters that spell it.

How the word is built

• plat (flat)
• -eau (French diminutive/noun ending)