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• mesa
  mesa

  noun

  a land formation, less extensive than a plateau, having steep walls and a relatively flat top and common in arid and semiarid parts of the southwestern U.S. and Mexico.
• Mesa
  Mesa

  noun

  a city in central Arizona, near Phoenix.

mesa

¹ American  

[mey-suh] / ˈmeɪ sə /

noun

1. a land formation, less extensive than a plateau, having steep walls and a relatively flat top and common in arid and semiarid parts of the southwestern U.S. and Mexico.

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Mesa ² American  

[mey-suh] / ˈmeɪ sə /

noun

1. a city in central Arizona, near Phoenix.

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mesa British  

/ ˈmeɪsə /

noun

1. a flat tableland with steep edges, common in the southwestern US

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mesa Scientific  

/ mā′sə /

1. An area of high land with a flat top and two or more steep, clifflike sides. Mesas are larger than buttes and smaller than plateaus, and are common in the southwest United States.

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Etymology

Origin of mesa

1750–60, < Spanish: table < Latin mēnsa

Explanation

A mesa is a flat-topped hill most commonly found in the Southwest part of the U.S.. Its sides are steep all around so that it looks like a massive table. Mesa comes from the Latin mensa meaning "table," which is very much what a mesa looks like. A mesa is formed when the weaker horizontal rocks around a big formation start to erode and fall away, leaving stronger rocks standing in a flat-topped hill. Grand Mesa in Western Colorado is the largest mesa in the world, with an area of 500 square miles. That's bigger than all of Hong Kong!

Example Sentences

The data were taken from computed tomography of subjects in the National Institutes of Health Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis, or MESA.

From Science Daily • Feb. 21, 2024

MESA, Ariz. — An Arizona man called a snake removal company after seeing what he thought were three rattlesnakes lurking in the garage of his Mesa home.

From Washington Times • Sep. 15, 2023

MESA, Ariz. — A teacher in training darted among students, tallying how many needed his help with a history unit on Islam.

From Seattle Times • Nov. 6, 2022

MESA, Ariz. — There is no hiding it now.

From New York Times • Mar. 15, 2016

MESA, Ariz. — Michael Phelps pulled himself out of the pool for the gazillionth time in his life, collected his clothes and walked from the competition pool to the warm-down area at Skyline Aquatic Center.

From Washington Post • Apr. 18, 2015