tabula rasa
noun uk/ˌtæb.jə.lə ˈrɑː.sə/ us/ˌtæb.jə.lə ˈrɑː.sə/
[ C usually singular or U ]（情况）一块白板，白纸一般
a situation in which nothing has yet been planned or decided, so that someone is free to decide what should happen or be done
The American republic expanded from a near tabula rasa, politically and geographically speaking. 从政治上和地理上来说，美利坚共和国是从近乎一片空白的状态扩展建立起来的。
Projects should aim to work with the existing urban fabric rather than assuming tabula rasa. 项目的目标应该是与现有的城市结构相融合，而不应该假定是白纸一张从头开始。
[ C ]（人的个性）一块白板，白纸一般
a person whose character is not fixed, and who can develop in different ways
Far from being a tabula rasa awaiting the imprint of others' ideas, he was a man of the most rigid principles. 他绝非一块等待别人留下印记的白板，而是一个有着最严格原则的人。
[ C ]白板（指人出生时尚未受到外界和自身经验影响的纯净心灵）
in philosophy, the human mind before it has any thoughts or ideas, as it is at birth
Holmes conceives of the mind as a tabula rasa. 福尔摩斯认为心灵是一片白板。
- More examples
- His aim in the east was obliteration: to create a tabula rasa for the new order which was in process of realization.
- My little bout with death has left me with a ghostly disconnection from myself - I am wiped clean, a tabula rasa.
- The concept held that humans were born with a tabula rasa; that what they became as adults was a function of time and circumstance.