me|ta|te

me|ta|te «may TAH tay», noun.

a stone with a flat or concave upper surface, and sometimes with legs beneath, on which corn or the like is ground by hand by means of a smaller stone, used in Mexico and the southwestern United States: »

A basalt metate was found in the hearth (Science).

╂[< Mexican Spanish metate < Nahuatl metatl]