T-pose

noun

A pose in which one stands rigidly with one's arms held out horizontally at shoulder height and parallel to the ground.

Meanings

nounT-pose (plural T-poses)

plural T-poses · alternative T pose

  1. A pose in which one stands rigidly with one's arms held out horizontally at shoulder height and parallel to the ground.

    After unposing the rays for all frames they obtain a visual hull that constrains the body shape in a canonical T-pose.

    2020, Marcus Magnor, Alexander Sorkine-Hornung, Real VR - Immersive Digital Reality, page 198
    2 more examples

    But most importantly: As we previously established, the T-pose is just a blueprint for constructing the physical anatomy of the character.

    2015 May 26, Ferdinand Engländer, “The T-pose – all about this mighty blueprint”, in Animator Island

    In order to perform a “T-Pose,” one stands as tall as possible, extends his or her arms outright (in order to form the letter T), and usually does so in an effort to intimidate.

    2018 May 16, "The Classy Libertarian", “Not Only Is the “T-Pose” Racist, It’s Also Violent”, in Medium, archived from the original on 16 May 2018
verbT-pose (third-person singular simple present T-poses, present participle T-posing, simple past and past participle T-posed)

present singular third person T-poses · participle present T-posing · participle past T-posed · past T-posed · alternative T pose

  1. intransitiveTo stand rigidly with one's arms held out horizontally at shoulder height and parallel to the ground.

    In 2018, T-posing has become something kids do in real life.

    2018 May 15, Jay Hathaway, “How the ‘T-pose’ became a meme”, in The Daily Dot

Origin

Originally a default pose for video game characters, but spread into real-life usage. Named as such because the person's body resembles the letter T.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

T-pose. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/T-pose

MLA

“T-pose.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/T-pose. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “T-pose,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/T-pose.

Source: T-pose on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.