Tabletop

How to spell tabletop

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce tabletop

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does tabletop mean?

1. nounThe flat upper surface of a table.
2. adjectiveDesigned to be used or played on the surface of a table.

Tabletop in a sentence

• noun

  She wiped the tabletop clean before laying out the plates.

• adjective

  The friends spent the evening on a sprawling tabletop game with miniatures and dice.

• noun

  The glass tabletop cracked when the heavy pot slipped from his hands.

• adjective

  He bought a compact tabletop heater for the patio dinner.

Where does tabletop come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is a transparent English compound, joining 'table' and 'top'. 'Table' came into English from the Latin tabula, which meant a flat board, plank, or writing tablet, and it arrived partly through Old French during the medieval period. 'Top' is a native Germanic word from Old English 'topp', meaning the highest point or summit, and it has cousins across the Germanic languages. Welded together, the two pieces simply name the flat upper surface of a table, and by extension anything designed to sit or be played on such a surface. The compound is reassuringly literal, so the only real spelling question is whether to write it solid (tabletop), which is now the standard modern form, rather than as two words or hyphenated.

How the word is built

• table (flat-topped piece of furniture)
• top (upper surface)