What does "t-pose" mean?

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

T-pose

noun, verb

noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

1
A pose in which one stands rigidly with one's arms held out horizontally at shoulder height and parallel to the ground.
"But most importantly: As we previously established, the T-pose is just a blueprint for constructing the physical anatomy of the character."

Verb

1
To stand rigidly with one's arms held out horizontally at shoulder height and parallel to the ground. intransitive
"In 2018, T-posing has become something kids do in real life."

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

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.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.