Standard Lemma guide

Mensa

name · noun · 5 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • /ˈmɛnsə/
  • rhymes with -ɛnsə
  • [-nts-]
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.

1

name

Meaning 1

Mensa International, an organization for people with very high IQs.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

name

Meaning 2

A summer constellation of the southern sky, originally named after Table Mountain in South Africa. It lies between the constellations of Hydrus and Volans.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: astronomy, natural-sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

In planetary geology, a large mesa-like area of raised land.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

noun

Meaning 4

The upper surface of an altar.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: Catholicism, Christianity, Roman-Catholicism

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

5

noun

Meaning 5

a faint constellation in the polar region of the southern hemisphere and containing part of the Large Magellanic Cloud

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: constellation

History

Etymology

From Latin mensa (“table”). The organization promotes itself as a "round-table" society in which differences in the backgrounds of its members are considered irrelevant.

From Mons Mensae (mensa (“table”)), from Montagne de la Table. Originally named Montagne de la Table after Table Mountain in South Africa in 1756 by the French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille. By 1763 this had been Latinised as Mons Mensae. In 1922 the International Astronomical Union shortened this to Mensa.

Learned borrowing from Latin mēnsa (“table, altar”). Doublet of mesa.

Across languages

Translations

16 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Chinese Mandarin: 山案座 (Shān'ànzuò) — constellation
  • Danish: Taffelbjerget — constellation
  • Dutch: Tafelberg — constellation
  • Esperanto: Tablomonto — constellation
  • Finnish: Pöytä — constellation
  • French: Table — constellation
  • Galician: Mesa — constellation
  • German: Tafelberg — constellation
  • Irish: an Tábla — constellation
  • Kazakh: Үстел тауы (Üstel tauy) — constellation
  • Malay: Gunung Datar — constellation
  • Norwegian: Bordet — constellation
  • Polish: Stół — constellation
  • Russian: Столо́вая Гора́ (Stolóvaja Gorá) — constellation
  • Spanish: Mensa — constellation
  • Swedish: Taffelberget — constellation