tableau

Meanings

1. A striking and vivid representation or scene; a picture.
2. A vivid graphic scene of a group of people or objects arranged as in a painting or bas relief sculpture.
3. An arrangement of actors in static positions on stage, having the effect of pointing up a particular moment in the drama, conventionally revealed by opening tableau curtains (known as "tabs").
4. A two-dimensional array or table of data, usually numbers, of various specific kinds.
5. A table that shows constraint violations of a list of candidates given an input and a constraint ranking.
6. Mostly in solitaire card games, but also in other card and board games, the main area, where random cards can be arranged.
7. A semantic tableau.
8. A unit of a play, an opera, or a ballet with change of stage setting.

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from French tableau, from Old French tablel (“a surface which is used primarily for painting”).