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algae: members of a group of predominantly aquatic, photosynthetic organisms of the kingdom Protista. They range in size from the tiny flagellate Micromonas that is 1 micrometre (0.00004 inch) in diameter ...
Algardi, Alessandro: after Bernini, the most important Roman sculptor of the 17th century working in the Baroque style.
Algarotti, Francesco: connoisseur of the arts and sciences, esteemed by the philosophers of the Enlightenment for his wide knowledge and elegant presentation of advanced ideas.
Algarve: historical province of southern Portugal, corresponding to the modern administrative distrito of Faro, bounded by the Atlantic Ocean (south and west) and the lower Guadiana River (east). Much of the ...
algebra: branch of mathematics in which arithmetical operations and formal manipulations are applied to abstract symbols rather than specific numbers. The notion that there exists such a distinct subdiscipline of mathematics, ...
algebra, elementary: branch of mathematics that deals with the general properties of numbers and the relations between them. Algebra is fundamental not only to all further mathematics and statistics but to the ...
algebra, linear: mathematical discipline that deals with vectors and matrices and, more generally, with vector spaces and linear transformations. Unlike other parts of mathematics that are frequently invigorated by new ideas and ...
algebra, modern: branch of mathematics concerned with the general algebraic structure of various sets (such as real numbers, complex numbers, matrices, and vector spaces), rather than rules and procedures for manipulating their ...
algebraic equation: statement of the equality of two expressions formulated by applying to a set of variables the algebraic operations, namely, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, raising to a power, and extraction of ...
algebraic geometry: study of the geometric properties of solutions to polynomial equations, including solutions in dimensions beyond three. (Solutions in two and three dimensions are first covered in plane and solid analytic ...
algebraic number: real number for which there exists a polynomial equation with integer coefficients such that the given real number is a solution. Algebraic numbers include all of the natural numbers, all ...
Algeciras: port town, Cadiz provincia, in the comunidad autonoma ("autonomous community") of Andalusia, in extreme southern Spain, across the Bay of Gibraltar from Gibraltar.
Algeciras Conference: (Jan. 16-April 7, 1906), international conference of the great European powers and the United States, held at Algeciras, Spain, to discuss France's relationship to the government of Morocco. The conference ...
Alger Of Liege: Flemish priest famed in his day for his learning and writings.
Alger, Horatio: one of the most popular American authors in the last 30 years of the 19th century and perhaps the most socially influential American writer of his generation.
Algeria: large, predominantly Muslim country of North Africa. From the Mediterranean coast, along which most of its people live, Algeria extends southward deep into the heart of the Sahara, a forbidding ...
Algerian Reformist Ulama, Association of: a body of Muslim religious scholars (ulama) who, under French rule, advocated the restoration of an Algerian nation rooted in Islamic and Arabic traditions.
Alghero: town and episcopal see, Sassari provincia, northwestern Sardinia, Italy, southwest of Sassari city. It was founded in 1102 by the Doria family of Genoa and became a Catalan colony under ...
Algiers: capital and chief seaport of Algeria. It is the political, economic, and cultural centre of the country.
Algirdas: grand duke of Lithuania from 1345 to 1377, who made Lithuania one of the largest European states of his day. His son Jogaila became Wladyslaw II Jagiello, king of united ...
Algol: prototype of a class of variable stars called eclipsing binaries, the second brightest star in the northern constellation Perseus. Its apparent visual magnitude changes periodically over the range of (approximately) ...
algology: the study of algae, a large heterogeneous group of chiefly aquatic plants ranging in size from microscopic forms to species as large as shrubs or small trees. The discipline is ...
Algonquian languages: North American Indian language family whose member languages are or were spoken in Canada, New England, the Atlantic coastal region southward to North Carolina, and the Great Lakes region and ...
Algonquin: any of a number of scattered Algonquian-speaking bands and tribes living in dense forest regions on either side of the upper Ottawa River in Canada. They drew cultural traits from ...
Algonquin Provincial Park: wilderness area, southeastern Ontario, Canada. It lies about 140 miles (225 km) northeast of Toronto and covers an area of 2,955 square miles (7,653 square km). Established in 1893, the ...
Algonquin Round Table: informal group of American literary men and women who met daily for lunch on weekdays at a large round table in the Algonquin Hotel in New York City during the ...
Algonquin, Lake: large glacial lake that once existed in North America and covered most of the area now occupied by the Great Lakes of Superior, Michigan, and Huron. It was present in ...
algorithm: systematic procedure that produces-in a finite number of steps-the answer to a question or the solution of a problem. The name derives from the Latin translation, Algoritmi de numero Indorum, ...
Algren, Nelson: writer whose novels of the poor are lifted from routine naturalism by his vision of their pride, humour, and unquenchable yearnings. He also catches with poetic skill the mood of ...
ALH84001: meteorite determined to have come from Mars and the subject of a contentious scientific claim that it contains the remains of ancient life indigenous to the planet. Recovered from the ...
Alhambra: city, Los Angeles county, California, U.S. Alhambra lies in the San Gabriel Valley, south of Pasadena. Laid out in 1874 by Benjamin D. Wilson on land once part of Mission ...
Alhambra: palace and fortress of the Moorish monarchs of Granada, Spain. The name Alhambra, signifying in Arabic "the red," is probably derived from the colour of the sun-dried tapia, or bricks ...
Alhucemas: Spanish plaza (enclave) on the Mediterranean coast of Morocco, comprising a bay, three islets, and a small port. The bay, a semicircular inlet (9 miles wide and ...
Ali: son-in-law of Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, and fourth caliph (successor to Muhammad), reigning from 656 to 661. The question of his right to the caliphate resulted in the only ...
Ali ar-Rida: eighth imam of the Twelver Shi'ites, noted for his piety and learning until 817, when the caliph al-Ma'mun, in an attempt to heal the division between the majority Sunnites and ...
Ali Bey: Mamluk governor of Egypt under Ottoman suzerainty who attempted to throw off the Ottoman Turkish rule.
Ali Haji bin Raja Amhad, Raja: Bugis-Malay prince who, as a scholar and historian, led a renaissance in Malay letters in the mid-19th century.
Ali Pasa Tepelene: Albanian brigand who, by murder and intrigue, became pasha, or provincial governor, of Janina from 1788. He extended his capricious rule within the Ottoman Empire over much of Albania and ...
Ali Pasa, Mehmed Emin: Ottoman grand vizier (chief minister) distinguished for his westernizing reform policies. Together with Mustafa Resid Pasa and Fuad Pasa, he was a main figure of the Tanzimat (Reorganization) period (1839-c. ...
Ali, Ahmed: Pakistani author whose novels and short stories examine Islamic culture and tradition in Hindu-dominated India. Proficient in both English and Urdu, he was also an accomplished translator and literary critic.
Ali, Muhammad: professional boxer and social activist. Ali was the first fighter to win the world heavyweight championship on three separate occasions; he successfully defended this title 19 times.
Alia, Ramiz: president of Albania (1982-92) and head of the communist Party of Labour of Albania (1985-91), renamed the Socialist Party of Albania in 1991.
Aliakmon River: river, the longest in Greek Macedonia. The river's total length is 185 miles (297 km). Rising in the Grammos Mountains of the eastern Pindus Range on the Albanian frontier, the ...
Alicante: provincia, in Valencia comunidad autonoma ("autonomous community"), southeastern Spain. It was formed in 1833 from parts of the historical provincias of Valencia and Murcia. The barren mountain terrain of the ...
Alicante: port city, capital of Alicante provincia, in Valencia comunidad autonoma ("autonomous community"), southeastern Spain. It is located on Alicante Bay of the Mediterranean Sea. ...
alicatado: mosaic formed of polygonal, coloured glazed tiles. Made up into geometric patterns, they have been used mostly for paving Spanish and Moorish patios but also for wall surfaces. The expansion ...
Alice: town, Eastern province, South Africa. It lies on the southwestern bank of the Tyume River, west-northwest of East London, at an elevation of 1,720 feet (524 m). Alice began as ...
Alice Springs: town, Northern Territory, Australia. It is the main focus of the Centre, a name given to approximately 100,000 square miles (260,000 square km) of central Australia that includes large areas ...
alicyclic compound: in chemistry, any of a large class of organic compounds in which three or more atoms of the element carbon are linked together in a ring. The bonds between pairs ...
alien: in national and international law, a foreign-born resident who is not a citizen by virtue of parentage or naturalization and who is still a citizen or subject of another country.
Alien and Sedition Acts: (1798), four internal security laws passed by the U.S. Congress, restricting aliens and curtailing the excesses of an unrestrained press, in anticipation of an expected war with France. After the ...
alienation: in social sciences, the state of feeling estranged or separated from one's milieu, work, products of work, or self. Despite its popularity in the analysis of contemporary life, the idea ...
alienation effect: idea central to the dramatic theory of the German dramatist-director Bertolt Brecht. It involves the use of techniques designed to distance the audience from emotional involvement in the play through ...
Aligarh: city, west-central Uttar Pradesh state, northern India. It lies southeast of Delhi. The city itself is usually called Koil, or Kol; Aligarh is the name of a nearby fort. The ...
Aliger, Margarita Iosifovna: Russian poet, journalist, and Soviet propagandist.
alignment: monument consisting of multiple rows of large upright stones, primarily located in Brittany and built during Neolithic and Early Bronze times. See megalith.
alimentary canal: pathway by which food enters the body and solid wastes are expelled. The alimentary canal includes the mouth, pharynx, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine, and anus. See digestion.
alimentary paste: a shaped and dried dough prepared from semolina, farina, wheat flour, or a mixture of these with water or milk and with or without egg or egg yolk. See pasta.
alimony: in divorce law, compensation owed by one spouse to the other for financial support after divorce. Alimony aims at support of the one spouse, not punishment of the other. In ...
Alinagar, Treaty of: (Feb. 9, 1757), pact concluded in India by the British agent Robert Clive after his recovery of Calcutta on Jan. 2, 1757, from the nawab of Bengal, Siraj-ud-Dawlah. The treaty ...
Alinsky, Saul: American social organizer who stimulated the creation of numerous activist citizen and community groups.
aliphatic compound: any chemical compound belonging to the organic class in which the atoms are not linked together to form a ring. One of the major structural groups of organic molecules, the ...
Alipore: town, West Bengal state, northeastern India. A southern suburb of Calcutta included within the city municipality, it has major industries, including printing and bookbinding, cement manufacture, oilseed milling, and general ...
Alipur Duar: city, northeastern West Bengal state, northeastern India, just north of the Kalyani River. Connected by road with Jalpaiguri, the city is an important market centre for rice, tobacco, and jute; ...
Aliquippa: city, Beaver county, western Pennsylvania, U.S. It lies along the Ohio River, just northwest of Pittsburgh. Settled about 1750 as a post for trade with Delaware, Iroquois, and Shawnee Indians, ...
Alisar Huyuk: site of an ancient Anatolian town southeast of Bogazkoy in central Turkey. Thorough and extensive excavations there by the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago (1927-32) were the first ...
Alismatales: the water-plantain order of flowering plants, belonging to the class Liliopsida (monocotyledons; characterized by a single seed leaf). Most species are aquatic and grow submerged or partially exposed to the ...
Alismatidae: subclass of flowering plants belonging to the class Lilopsida.
Alisol: one of the 30 soil groups in the classification system of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Alisols are highly acidic, poorly drained soils prone to aluminum toxicity and water ...
Alitalia-Linee Aeree Italiane: Italian international airline founded in 1946 and, by the late 20th century, serving more than 120 cities in Europe, Africa, Asia, North and South America, and Australia. Headquarters are in ...
Alito, Samuel A., Jr.: associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 2006.
aliyah: in Judaism, the honour accorded to a worshiper of being called up to read an assigned passage from the Torah (first five books of the Bible). Because the passage assigned ...
alizarin: a red dye originally obtained from the root of the common madder plant, Rubia tinctorum, in which it occurs combined with the sugars xylose and glucose. The cultivation of madder ...
alka: in Baltic religion, an open-air religious site, a natural sanctuary-forest, hill, river-that was sacred and inviolate. Trees could not be cut in such forests, sacred fields could not be plowed, ...
Alkalai, Judah ben Solomon Hai: Sephardic rabbi and an early advocate of Jewish colonization of Palestine.
alkali: any of the soluble hydroxides of the alkali metals-i.e., lithium, sodium, potassium, rubidium, and cesium. Alkalies are strong bases that turn litmus paper from red to blue; they react with ...