One embodiment provides a computer program product for cognitive visual and ontological mapping of tabular data. The computer program product comprises a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith. The program instructions are executable by a processor to cause the processor to receive a data query and ontology information relating to the data query, receive context information relating to a display device, determine a measure of interest for the data query and one or more constraints for the measure of interest, determine saliency features based on the context information, and generate a user interface comprising query results corresponding to the data query arranged in a dynamic tabular format for display on the display device. The dynamic tabular format is based on the ontology information, the measure of interest, the one or more constraints for the measure of interest, and the saliency features.