# tablet

/ˈtæbɫət/ (US) · /tˈæblət/ (UK)

Source: https://englishreference.com/word/tablet
Updated: 2026-06-19

## Senses

### 1. medicine

noun · CEFR A2

a small, solid piece of medicine that you swallow.

For teachers: a small, solid dose of a drug or medication, typically circular or ovoid in shape.

- The doctor told him to take one tablet with water every morning.
- The pharmacist explained that the tablet should be swallowed whole rather than crushed to ensure the slow release of the active ingredient.

### 2. computer

noun · CEFR A2

a thin, portable computer that you control by touching the screen.

For teachers: a mobile computer with a touchscreen interface, typically larger than a smartphone but smaller than a laptop.

- She uses her tablet to read books and watch movies on the plane.
- The school provided each student with a tablet to facilitate digital note-taking and access to interactive textbooks during the semester.

### 3. stone slab

noun · CEFR B1

a flat piece of stone or clay used in the past for writing.

For teachers: a flat slab of stone, clay, or wood, especially one bearing an inscription or used for writing in antiquity.

- The museum has an ancient stone tablet with laws written on it.
- Archaeologists discovered a clay tablet inscribed with cuneiform script, providing new insights into the trade agreements of the ancient city-state.

### 4. pad of paper

noun · CEFR B2 · American English

a collection of sheets of paper joined together at the top.

For teachers: a number of sheets of writing paper fastened together at one edge.

- He grabbed a tablet of paper to write down the shopping list.
- She kept a tablet of lined paper on her nightstand to record her thoughts immediately upon waking.

### 5. confectionery

noun · CEFR C1 · British English · Dialect

a hard, sweet snack made from sugar, butter, and condensed milk.

For teachers: a traditional Scottish confection with a grainy texture, primarily composed of sugar, butter, and condensed milk.

- My grandmother always makes homemade tablet for us at Christmas.
- While similar to fudge, Scottish tablet is boiled to a higher temperature, resulting in a characteristically brittle and grainy consistency.

### 6. to make into pills

verb · CEFR C2 · Formal · Technical

to press a powder or medicine into the shape of a small pill.

For teachers: to process a substance, typically a pharmaceutical, into the form of tablets.

- The machine can tablet thousands of doses of medicine every hour.
- The raw chemical compound is granulated and dried before it is sent to the high-speed press to be tableted for commercial distribution.

## Examples

- I use my tablet to watch movies on the train.
- The doctor told him to take one tablet with water every morning before breakfast.
- While smartphones offer portability and laptops provide processing power, the tablet occupies a middle ground, serving as an ideal medium for digital illustration and casual media consumption.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.