Table (furniture)

For other uses, see Table.

A table and chairs

A picnic table

A table is a piece of furniture with a flat top supported by one or more legs. People put things on a table, often for a short time, for example food and knives and forks, etc. at a meal, cups for drinks, a book, a map, writing paper when writing, and things for hobbies.

We also put things on tables for a longer time, for example a TV, computer or decorations (pretty things). Often we put a cloth on the table, flat on the top. There are traditional ways of putting the cloth, knives and forks and food on the table for meals.

We can make some tables bigger, for example by pulling the top out. We can also fold some tables to transport them better, for example for camping. There are also small tables in trains and planes which we can fold or open. Some round tables come with a Lazy Susan. This is a rotating piece of wood in the center of the table. A table for use outdoors is called a picnic table.

Traditionally, tables in Japan, chabudai, are low, sometimes round tables, for tea and food.

The name of the international organization Mensa is from the Latin word for table.

Table (furniture) Media

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  A gilded Baroque table, with a stone top (most probably marble), from the Cinquantenaire Museum (Brussels, Belgium)

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  Rococo writing table; 1759; lacquered oak, gilt-bronze mounts and lined with modern leather; height: 80.6 cm, width: 175.9 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)

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  Roman dining table: mensa lunata

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  Large 17th-century English folding tables

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  A dinner table with wooden chairs in a living room.

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  A formally laid table, set with a dinner service

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  Furniture exhibited in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, USA. This work is in the public domain because the maker(s) died more than 70 years ago.

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  Chess table at Parc de la Tête d'Or in Lyon, France.

Related pages

• Chair
• Cupboard