tabula rasa

American  

[tab-yuh-luh rah-suh, -zuh, rey-, tah-boo-lah rah-sah] / ˈtæb yə lə ˈrɑ sə, -zə, ˈreɪ-, ˈtɑ bʊˌlɑ ˈrɑ sɑ /

noun

plural

tabulae rasae

1. a mind not yet affected by experiences, impressions, etc.

2. anything existing undisturbed in its original pure state.

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tabula rasa British  

/ ˈtæbjʊlə ˈrɑːsə /

noun

1. (esp in the philosophy of Locke) the mind in its uninformed original state

2. an opportunity for a fresh start; clean slate

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tabula rasa Cultural  

1. Something new, fresh, unmarked, or uninfluenced. Tabula rasa is Latin for “blank slate.”

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Discover More

John Locke believed that a child's mind was a tabula rasa.

Etymology

Origin of tabula rasa

First recorded in 1525–35, tabula rasa is from Latin tabula rāsa “scraped tablet, clean slate”

Example Sentences

The conceptual idea around this is that it’s growing out of something, as opposed to tabula rasa, a new building.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 19, 2025

Somewhere inside a tabula rasa passed off as an office space, a diligent worker is rewarded with a five-minute "dance experience."

From Salon • Jan. 18, 2025

The top is a tabula rasa of post-pandemic young adulthood, ready to absorb and reflect the 2023 equivalent of those aforementioned references: It looks like TikTok, tastes like espresso martinis and sounds like Dua Lipa.

From Washington Post • Jan. 7, 2023

Neuroscience inherited the blank slate framework millennia after early thinkers gave names like tabula rasa to mental operations.

From Scientific American • May 31, 2022

It denies the existence of any a priori possibility of knowledge, and maintains that the mind is at first a tabula rasa, a clean slate, upon which all the characters are inscribed by experience.

From The New Gresham Encyclopedia Volume 4, Part 2: Ebert to Estremadura by Various