mensa

[ men-suh ]

noun,plural men·sas, men·sae [men-see] /ˈmɛn si/ for 1.
  1. Also called altar slab, altar stone . the flat stone forming the top of the altar in a Roman Catholic church.

  2. genitive Men·sae.(initial capital letter)Astronomy. the Table, a southern constellation near Octans.

Origin of mensa

1
First recorded in 1685–95; from Latin mēnsa “table”

Words Nearby mensa

Other definitions for Mensa (2 of 2)

Mensa
[ men-suh ]

noun
  1. an international fellowship organization for people with IQ's in the top 2 percent of the general population.

Origin of Mensa

2
From the Latin word mēnsa table, symbolizing the original conception of the society, “a round table where no one has precedence”

Other words from Mensa

  • Mensan, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use mensa in a sentence

  • Would not the discomfort of meals eaten with a companion who could swallow nothing justify a divorce a mensa?

    Somehow Good | William de Morgan
  • Pone omnibus scitule appositis, ac mensa largiter instructa edere ceperunt, omniaque ingurgitauerunt.

  • In the Tripartite (Stokes, p. 251), menister seems to mean the paten, and mias (quasi mensa) the altar-table.

British Dictionary definitions for Mensa (1 of 2)

Mensa1

/ (ˈmɛnsə) /


nounLatin genitive Mensae (ˈmɛnsiː)
  1. a faint constellation in the S hemisphere lying between Hydrus and Volans and containing part of the Large Magellanic Cloud

Origin of Mensa

1
Latin, literally: the table

British Dictionary definitions for Mensa (2 of 2)

Mensa2

/ (ˈmɛnsə) /


noun
  1. an international society, membership of which is restricted to people whose intelligence test scores exceed those expected of 98 per cent of the population

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012