entablature

noun

en·​tab·​la·​ture in-ˈta-blə-ˌchu̇r 

-chər, 

-ˌt(y)u̇r

: a horizontal part in classical architecture that rests on the columns and consists of architrave, frieze, and cornice

Illustration of entablature

• 1 entablature
• 2 cornice
• 3 frieze
• 4 architrave

Examples of entablature in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Early plans, according to Smithsonian magazine, included an entablature with a short history of the country, a staircase, a Hall of Records to include the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, and the torsos of each president featured. — Rachel Raposas, People.com, 5 July 2025

Like the Gran Trianon, Rosecliff has Ionic columns, French doors, and a multitiered entablature topped with intricate statues. — Claudia Williams, Architectural Digest, 6 Aug. 2024

The luxurious Breakfast Room’s fireplace ensemble, including Roman Doric columns supporting an exquisite entablature, is as brilliantly designed, if not as eye-catching, as the Banquet Hall’s triple fireplace. — Catesby Leigh, WSJ, 11 Mar. 2022

Bas reliefs on the entablature feature important thinkers such as Booker T. Washington and Frederick Douglass. — Los Angeles Times, 14 Jan. 2021

Those ornamental capitals on top of columns were a way to muffle the violence of a vertical pillar piercing into a horizontal beam or entablature. — Anne Quito, Quartz, 19 Feb. 2020

Columns in the Takachicho-kyo Gorge in Japan, showing the colonnade and entablature common in these columnar jointed basalt flows. — Erik Klemetti, Discover Magazine, 2 Feb. 2015

Word History

Etymology

obsolete French, modification of Italian intavolatura, from intavolare to put on a board or table, from in- (from Latin) + tavola board, table, from Latin tabula

First Known Use

1611, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for entablature

• tablature