Tables

How to spell tables

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce tables

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does tables mean?

1. nounMore than one flat-topped piece of furniture, or more than one grid of arranged figures or information.
2. verbFormally sets a matter aside or, in British usage, puts it forward for discussion at a meeting.

Tables in a sentence

• noun

  The restaurant pushed several tables together for the large party.

• verb

  The chair routinely tables minor issues until the following session.

• noun

  The report includes three tables summarising the quarterly sales.

• verb

  Whenever funding comes up, the board tables the question for later review.

Where does tables come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the plural and present-tense form of 'table', which comes from the Latin tabula, meaning a flat board, plank, or writing tablet. In Roman use a tabula was often a board on which lists, laws, or accounts were written, which is why the word later came to mean an arranged grid of figures as well as a piece of furniture. English absorbed it twice: the Old English 'tabule' came straight from Latin, and the form was reinforced after the Norman Conquest by the Old French 'table'. The furniture sense and the 'arranged data' sense both trace back to that single idea of a flat surface holding marks. The spelling stays comfortingly regular here; the only thing to watch is that the plural simply adds -s with no change to the silent final -e of the singular.

How the word is built

• table (from Latin tabula: board, plank, list)
• -s (plural noun / third-person verb ending)