Definition of "tabula rasa" []

• The mind before it receives the impressions gained from experience. (noun)
• The unformed, featureless mind in the philosophy of John Locke. (noun)
• A need or an opportunity to start from the beginning. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Joe, now: a creature with a brain of human capacity, but without a mind — a perfect Lockean tabula rasa for Anglesey's psibeam to write on."
• "People who believe in some sort of tabula rasa theory – whereby we are all born with a blank sheet for a mind, and fill it in by experience – must be surprised at Sperry’s result."
• "Preconceived notions, blinding prejudices, and shrivelling antipathies must be wiped out, and the cultivable soul made a tabula rasa for whatever lesson great Nature has to teach."