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mesa

mesa

11 7.2
A flat area of land with steep sides found in dry places
  • noun
  • /ˈmeɪsə/
translation icon : meseta
  • Even in the dead of a moonlit night, the mesa appeared a deep blood red.
  • mesa top
  • mesa's cliffs
  • mesas and canyons

And there's actually areas around the Middle East where there's big mesas that are known as the Thrones of Solomon.

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Examples

  • I camped out one night on the edge of a mesa in Utah.

    Fiction book (1999)
  • What was so special about those people who faced the sky from this mesa so long ago?

    Academic text (2002)
  • That mesa we saw today, one of my favorite places in the world.

  • You two could have a beautiful little castle on the mesa.

  • The hills became mountains, and the mountains became mesas, with flat tops high up.

    Fiction book (1992)
  • Not far off the highway, the largest of these mesas sort of erupted out of the ground.

    Fiction book (1991)
  • The twisting road crested the top of a wooded mesa and began to descend steeply.

    Fiction book (1995)
  • The terrain was even hillier now, with isolated slug-shaped mesas rising up from patches of woods and rocky meadows.

    Fiction book (1991)
  • A distinctive orange band around inner-canyon mesas and buttes draws the viewer's gaze into the gorge's depths.

    Academic text (2012)
  • The twisting road crested the top of a wooded mesa and began to descend steeply.

Synonyms

plateau
vsmesa
99 3.9

A large flat area of land higher than the land around it

is smaller and more isolated with steep sides in arid regions
table
vsmesa
80 7.5

A flat, high area of land with steep sides

is the same landform but uses a different term
butte
vsmesa
  • US
24 8.9

A steep hill with a flat top and slanted sides that rises alone from the land

is larger and less isolated, forming broader flat expanses

Antonyms

1.0

A low area of land between hills or mountains often with a river running through it

Compounds

A national park in Colorado with well-preserved ancient cliff homes built by Native Americans

How Big

plateau
99 3.9
mesa
11 7.2
butte
  • US
24 8.9

Surface Forms

mesa singular
mesas plural

Etymology

Mesa comes from Spanish mesa 'table', and before that from Latin mensa 'table'. A mesa looks like a big stone table—flat on top with steep sides—so the name fits its flat, raised shape.