How to Use tableau in a Sentence

tableau

noun
  • The houses are grouped together in a charming tableau.
  • And that was the character of the tableau on the stage.
    Peter Marks, Washington Post, 27 June 2019
  • In 2004, this bridge was the site of a gruesome tableau.
    John Daniszewski, BostonGlobe.com, 16 Mar. 2023
  • This calming tableau is the break your eyes need from screen time.
    Hadley Mendelsohn, House Beautiful, 22 Aug. 2023
  • The streets of Kyiv once again were a tableau of destruction not seen since the early days of the war.
    Cora Engelbrecht, BostonGlobe.com, 10 Oct. 2022
  • The idea was to transform the group into a seamless bird tableau.
    Madison Malone Kircher, New York Times, 1 Nov. 2023
  • The tableau might just contain members of the next big set of TV anchors, too.
    Brian Steinberg, Variety, 29 Apr. 2022
  • Each piece is, in its way, a tableau come to fluid life, with drama to spare.
    David L. Coddon, San Diego Union-Tribune, 15 Apr. 2021
  • As the tableau kicked into a rollicking gear, so too did the maskers.
    The Masked Observer, al, 25 Feb. 2022
  • The bartender and a man sitting alone observed this tableau.
    Elizabeth Barber, The New Yorker, 3 May 2018
  • Here, in one tableau, all ages and stages can be found thriving 20 years after the Cedar fire passed through.
    Paul Sisson, San Diego Union-Tribune, 23 Oct. 2023
  • Non-parading groups will just have a ball, a tableau or an opening skit.
    USA TODAY, 12 Feb. 2024
  • To the uninitiated, the tableau at the checkpoint looks out of control.
    Robert Draper, National Geographic, 17 June 2019
  • The tableau is assembled on a slice of raw log, more bark than planed surface.
    Jonathan Gold, latimes.com, 20 Apr. 2018
  • The scene isn’t a real sculpture at all but rather a girl dressed in gold from head to toe, standing in tableaux.
    Faith E. Pinho, latimes.com, 12 June 2019
  • James Nachtwey’s photograph from Bucha, Ukraine, is a wartime tableau cluttered with the stuff of life.
    The New Yorker, 19 Dec. 2022
  • In each level, the player confronts one of the crime scenes, unearthing clues in its frozen tableau.
    Simon Parkin, The New Yorker, 2 Dec. 2022
  • Even the sea gulls, whose cawing and mewling were so much a part of the commotion of the Bosporus, fell in line with this solemn tableau.
    New York Times, 12 May 2022
  • History will not forget the tableau at the White House as Biden walked to the lectern flanked by two Black women.
    Washington Post, 26 Feb. 2022
  • With 104 cards to begin with, the player wins the game when the tableau is completely empty.
    Jon Stojan, USA TODAY, 19 July 2023
  • This year, red mums add to the colorful tableau, and pumpkins are perched even high above Young’s front door.
    Jessica Contrera, Washington Post, 15 Oct. 2023
  • The unique art offers a textured tableau ripe for a variety of hues.
    Carol Besler, Robb Report, 12 May 2021
  • This tableau was about 100 yards from a playground with swings and slides, nestled beneath a woodsy shade.
    Patrick J. McDonnell, Anchorage Daily News, 6 Apr. 2022
  • The final movement, a hunting song, more evoked a genteel tableau than a chase.
    Zoë Madonna, BostonGlobe.com, 7 July 2019
  • Elaborate swords flanked the men, and a number of gaming pieces were strewn over this strange tableau mourant.
    Karin Altenberg, WSJ, 14 Aug. 2020
  • However, the drink missing from this tableau is Gatorade.
    Charlie Hobbs, Condé Nast Traveler, 29 Jan. 2024
  • All things considered, the tableau could just as well be a bland suburb of Pittsburgh.
    Grant Wahl, SI.com, 1 May 2018
  • But this has been a season like none other, as the world watches and holds its breath over the sad tableau of the grieving whale and her baby.
    Lynda V. Mapes, The Seattle Times, 30 July 2018
  • The world is established immediately, with the opening tableau showcasing the assassins in a straight line, which makes metaphoric and logistic sense, an all-star lineup of the worst hall of fame ever.
    David John Chávez, The Mercury News, 18 July 2024
  • What starts as something broad and comedic soon morphs into a much more disturbing tableau — a piece of violent misogyny that implicates a culture of toxic masculinity, class elitism and even the audience itself.
    Steven Zeitchik, The Hollywood Reporter, 30 Sep. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'tableau.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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