Jump to:

• mensa
  mensa

  noun

  the flat stone forming the top of the altar in a Roman Catholic church.
• Mensa
  Mensa

  noun

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

mensa

¹ American  

[men-suh] / ˈmɛn sə /

noun

plural

mensas, mensae,

genitive

Mensae

1. Also called altar stone.  Also called altar slab,.  the flat stone forming the top of the altar in a Roman Catholic church.

2. (initial capital letter) the Table, a southern constellation near Octans.

---

Mensa ² American  

[men-suh] / ˈmɛn sə /

noun

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

---

Mensa ¹ British  

/ ˈmɛnsə /

noun

1. a faint constellation in the S hemisphere lying between Hydrus and Volans and containing part of the Large Magellanic Cloud

---

Mensa ² British  

/ 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

---

Other Word Forms

• Mensan
  noun

Etymology

Origin of mensa¹

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

Origin of Mensa²

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

Example Sentences

Item in ciuitate Tiberiade, quæ est propè hoc mare habetur in veneratione mensa illius coenæ, quam in Emaus castello Christus cænauit, cum ab oculis commensalium euanuit.

From The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation — Volume 08 Asia, Part I by Hakluyt, Richard

But an answer was afforded by any conduct which would have supported a decree of divorce a mensa et thoro.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 8, Slice 5 "Dinard" to "Dodsworth" by Various

So he pulled out two three-legged stools, and very soon I was trying to fix my wandering wits and decline mensa.

From Noughts and Crosses Stories, Studies and Sketches by Quiller-Couch, Arthur Thomas, Sir

There was nothing whatever ordained or assigned for his episcopal mensa, by which the bishop might live; for he had not even a house of his own.

From St. Bernard of Clairvaux's Life of St. Malachy of Armagh by Lawlor, Hugh Jackson

You should have gone to the ecclesiastical court and there obtained against your wife a decree a mensa et thoro.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 8, Slice 5 "Dinard" to "Dodsworth" by Various