Tabula \Tab"u*la\, n.; pl. Tabul[ae]. [L.]

1. A table; a tablet.

2. (Zo["o]l.) One of the transverse plants found in the calicles of certain corals and hydroids.

Tabula rasa[L.]

, a smoothed tablet; hence, figuratively, the mind in its earliest state, before receiving impressions from without; -- a term used by Hobbes, Locke, and others, in maintaining a theory opposed to the doctrine of innate ideas.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)