terra incognita
noun
-in-ˈkäg-nə-tə
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When Roman mapmakers drew a land area that no one had yet explored, they often labeled it "Terra Incognita"—that is, "Unknown Territory"—and the term continued to be used for centuries afterward. When Columbus and his successors first crossed the Atlantic, they entered upon terra incognita, a land that came to be called the "New World". But the term is just as useful for mental exploration. For most of us, subjects such as particle physics, French 17th-century drama, and soil mechanics are terra incognita, and we can only hope to live long enough to be able to explore some of them someday.
Examples of terra incognita in a Sentence
Emily Raboteau, The New York Review of Books, 1 Nov. 2020
For four decades, Libya has been largely terra incognita, a place where the outsized personality of its quixotic leader and a byzantine bureaucracy obscured an informal network of constantly shifting power brokers.
—Frederic Wehrey, Foreign Affairs, 28 Feb. 2011
But there will be places that read like terra incognita.
—Bhopi Dhall and Saurajit Kanungo, Forbes, 12 Feb. 2024
Further, death is terra incognita — what happens to men after their death is unknown to the elves or possibly even to the Valar (the order of beings below Illuvatar in Tolkien’s cosmology).
—Jack Butler, National Review, 31 Dec. 2023
Women were long considered too burdensome to belong in terra incognita and until relatively recently were all but banned from polar travel.
—Emily Raboteau, The New York Review of Books, 1 Nov. 2020
News headlines and online posts continue to refer to North Sentinel as one of the most isolated places in the world, perhaps the last true terra incognita on Earth.
—Adam Goodheart, Smithsonian Magazine, 25 Sep. 2023
Unlike most of Europe and the U.S., Canada was still largely terra incognita in the late 19th century.
—Jonathon Keats, Discover Magazine, 27 Aug. 2019
Common ground on policy is not terra incognita.
—Editorial Board New York Times, Star Tribune, 14 Dec. 2020
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'terra incognita.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Terra incognita.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/terra%20incognita. Accessed 19 Apr. 2024.
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