Table

How to spell table

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce table

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does table mean?

1. nounA piece of furniture with a flat top supported on legs, used for eating, working, or placing objects.
2. nounAn arrangement of facts or figures in rows and columns for easy reference.
3. verbTo formally put forward a proposal or motion for discussion at a meeting (British usage); in American usage, to postpone discussion of it.

Table in a sentence

• noun

  She set the dinner table for six guests.

• noun

  The report includes a table comparing prices across regions.

• verb

  The councillor decided to table a motion on parking reform.

• noun

  He wiped the kitchen table before laying out the documents.

• noun

  Check the multiplication table printed at the back of the book.

• verb

  The committee agreed to table the proposal at the next session.

Where does table come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin tabula, which meant a flat board, a plank, or a writing tablet, and by extension any list or record written on such a surface. It reached English by two routes that eventually merged: the Old English tabule, borrowed early from Latin, and the Old French table, which reinforced the spelling and meaning after the Norman period. The sense of a piece of furniture grew naturally from the idea of a flat board set on legs, while the sense of an organised list of figures preserves the older Roman notion of the tabula as a written record. The same root survives in 'tablet' and 'tableau', and that shared origin explains why the spelling keeps the unstressed -le ending rather than the -el you might expect from the sound. The familiar spelling has stayed remarkably steady since the Middle Ages.

How the word is built

• tabl- (from Latin tabula: board, plank, list)
• -e