mesa

Definition

Flat area of land or plateau higher than other land, with one or more clifflike edges.

Etymology

First attested 1759, from Spanish mesa (“table”), from Latin mēnsa. Doublet of mensa.

Example Sentences

• "A few more miles of hot sand and gravel and red stone brought us around a low mesa to the Little Colorado River."
• "Low mesas, dry, treeless, stretch back from the brink of the canyon, often showing smooth surfaces of naked, solid rock."
• "Those multitoned buttes and mesas [of the Grand Canyon], and that incandescent sequence of colorful bands that make one of the natural wonders of the world so grand, can also be found over 100 million miles away [on Mars]."