Meaning & use
tablet
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountable
A small flat computer that you control mainly by touching its screen.
Grammar: Countable: one tablet, two tablets; use it with verbs like use, charge, or tap.
Patterns
- use a tablet
- a tablet screen
- charge a tablet
She reads the news on her tablet every morning.
The teacher handed out tablets so each student could do the quiz.
My tablet battery only lasts about six hours.
nouncountable
A small hard piece of medicine that you swallow whole.
Grammar: Countable; often used with take: take two tablets a day.
Patterns
- take a tablet
- a sleeping tablet
- a tablet for something
Take one tablet with a glass of water after breakfast.
The doctor gave him tablets for his cough.
She keeps her tablets in a small box in her bag.
nouncountabletechnical
A flat piece of stone or other hard material used for writing on in the past.
Grammar: Countable; usually appears in historical writing or in the phrase clay tablet.
Patterns
- a clay tablet
- a stone tablet
Archaeologists found clay tablets covered in ancient writing.
The laws were carved on a stone tablet.
Word forms
| plural | tablets |
|---|
Common combinations
- take a tablet
- Remember to take your tablet at the same time each day.
- a tablet computer
- A tablet computer is lighter than a laptop.
- download an app onto a tablet
- He downloaded the game onto his tablet.
- a sleeping tablet
- The doctor did not want to give her sleeping tablets.
- a clay tablet
- The museum displays clay tablets from ancient Iraq.
Synonyms and how they differ
- pill
- Pill is the everyday word for a small round medicine; tablet is more formal and suggests a flat, pressed shape.
- capsule
- A capsule is a medicine inside a soft shell that you swallow; a tablet is solid all the way through.
- slab
- Slab means a thick flat piece of stone or food, not a computer or medicine.
Word family
- tablet-shaped adjective
- shaped like a small flat block
Commonly confused: tablet or tab? tablet or pill?
tablet vs tab
A tab is a small flap, a browser page, or a bill you owe; a tablet is the device or the medicine.
tablet vs pill
Learners often use pill for any medicine, but a pill is usually round and a tablet is flat and pressed.
Practice
The nurse told him to ___ two tablets every morning.
Choose one answer.
We say take a tablet when we mean swallow medicine. Eat and drink are about food, and use is too general for medicine.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “tablet”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.