tabula rasa

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

If the brain started as a true tabula rasa, with no built-in connections, neurons would first need to locate and connect with one another.

From Science Daily • May 3, 2026

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

Each of these, Pythagoras to Euclid, could be counted as a tabula rasa.

From Washington Post • Apr. 28, 2023

It was not their purpose to make a tabula rasa of the old structure which had slowly grown stone by stone, statute by statute and to rebuild entirely on new plans.

From Thomas Jefferson The Apostle of Americanism by Chinard, Gilbert