Meanings
- uncountablehuman sciencesThe quality of being a table.
The exceedingly dry joke is that it is not a small table but a small amount of what might be called tableness.
2009 June 12, Ken Johnson, “Close Encounters With Tableness and Chairness”, in The New York Times2 more examples
When Plato spoke of tableness and cupness, Diogenes the Cynic said: 'I see a table and a cup, to be sure, but not tableness and cupness.' 'Right,' answered Plato; 'for you have eyes wherewith to see the table and the cup, but mind, by which one sees tableness and cupness, you have not (νου̑ν οὐκ ἔχεις).'
1894, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, “First Period, Third Division: Plato and Aristotle”, in E[lizabeth] S[anderson] Haldane, Frances H[elen] Simson, transl., Lectures on the History of Philosophy […], volume II, London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., […], →OCLC, page 29[…] implies a philosophical distinction between bookness and tableness. There is no more requirement to show why an experience cannot be a brain-state than there is to show why a book cannot be a table.
1969, Gerald Eugene Myers, Self: An Introduction to Philosophical Psychology, page 47Synonyms: tableity
Synonyms & antonyms
nounThe quality of being a table.
Origin
Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
tableness. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tableness
“tableness.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tableness. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “tableness,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tableness.
Source: tableness on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.