Question:
Given below are a few commonly used foreign language phrases, select the correct answer from the four options given below.
Tabula rasa
Given below are a few commonly used foreign language phrases, select the correct answer from the four options given below.
Tabula rasa
Tabula rasa
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Romans wrote on wax tablets and scraped them clean to reuse them. "Tabula" is the tablet and "rasa" shares its root with erase.
Updated On: Jul 17, 2026
- clean slate
- agitated
- deprived
- creative
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The Correct Option is A
Solution and Explanation
Step 1: Understanding the Question.
The phrase to be matched is the Latin "tabula rasa". We must pick the option that gives its meaning.
Step 2: Key Approach.
Take the phrase word by word. "Tabula" is a Latin noun meaning a writing tablet or board, and it survives in English as "table" and "tablet". "Rasa" is the past participle of "radere", meaning to scrape or to erase, and it gives English words like erase and razor. So "tabula rasa" literally means a tablet that has been scraped clean, in other words a blank slate.
Step 3: Detailed Explanation.
Romans wrote on wax tablets and scraped the wax smooth when they wanted to start again. The phrase became famous in philosophy through John Locke, who argued that the human mind at birth is a tabula rasa, carrying no built in ideas, and that everything we know is written on it by experience.
In ordinary use, "starting with a tabula rasa" means beginning afresh with nothing already recorded and no prior commitments. The English idiom "a clean slate" says exactly this, which makes option (A) correct.
Step 4: Why the other options are wrong.
Option (B) "agitated" describes a disturbed state of mind. Nothing in either Latin word points to emotion.
Option (C) "deprived" means kept from having something one needs. A blank tablet is empty, but emptiness by choice or by nature is not deprivation, so this is only a surface resemblance.
Option (D) "creative" is a near miss trap, since a blank page is where creation starts. Still, the phrase names the blank state itself, not the ability to invent.
Final Answer:
Tabula rasa means a scraped, blank tablet, that is, a clean slate. The answer is option (A).
The phrase to be matched is the Latin "tabula rasa". We must pick the option that gives its meaning.
Step 2: Key Approach.
Take the phrase word by word. "Tabula" is a Latin noun meaning a writing tablet or board, and it survives in English as "table" and "tablet". "Rasa" is the past participle of "radere", meaning to scrape or to erase, and it gives English words like erase and razor. So "tabula rasa" literally means a tablet that has been scraped clean, in other words a blank slate.
Step 3: Detailed Explanation.
Romans wrote on wax tablets and scraped the wax smooth when they wanted to start again. The phrase became famous in philosophy through John Locke, who argued that the human mind at birth is a tabula rasa, carrying no built in ideas, and that everything we know is written on it by experience.
In ordinary use, "starting with a tabula rasa" means beginning afresh with nothing already recorded and no prior commitments. The English idiom "a clean slate" says exactly this, which makes option (A) correct.
Step 4: Why the other options are wrong.
Option (B) "agitated" describes a disturbed state of mind. Nothing in either Latin word points to emotion.
Option (C) "deprived" means kept from having something one needs. A blank tablet is empty, but emptiness by choice or by nature is not deprivation, so this is only a surface resemblance.
Option (D) "creative" is a near miss trap, since a blank page is where creation starts. Still, the phrase names the blank state itself, not the ability to invent.
Final Answer:
Tabula rasa means a scraped, blank tablet, that is, a clean slate. The answer is option (A).
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