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Altranstadt, treaties of ... Amarna style
Altranstadt, treaties of
agreements made during the Second, or Great, Northern War (1700-21) by the Swedish king Charles XII with Augustus II, king of Poland and elector of Saxony (Sept. 24, 1706), and ...
Altria Group
American holding company founded in 1985, the owner of several major American companies, notably Philip Morris Inc., the General Foods Corporation, and Kraft, Inc., with diversified interests in tobacco and ...
altruism
in ethics, a theory of conduct that regards the good of others as the end of moral action. The term (French altruisme, derived from Latin alter, "other") was coined in ...
Altus
city, seat (1907) of Jackson county, southwestern Oklahoma, U.S. The original settlement of Frazier (1886), near Bitter Creek (Salt Fork of the Red River) on the Great Western cattle trail, ...
Aluko, T.M.
Nigerian writer whose short stories and novels deal with social change and the clash of cultures in modern Africa.
alum
any of a group of hydrated double salts, usually consisting of aluminum sulfate, water of hydration, and the sulfate of another element. A whole series of hydrated double salts results ...
Alumbrado
a follower of a mystical movement in Spain during the 16th and 17th centuries. Its adherents claimed that the human soul, having attained a certain degree of perfection, was permitted ...
alumina
synthetically produced aluminum oxide (Al2O3), a white or nearly colourless crystalline substance that is used as a starting material for the smelting of aluminum metal. It also serves as the ...
aluminum
chemical element, a lightweight, silvery-white metal of main Group IIIa (boron group) of the periodic table. Aluminum is the most abundant metallic element in the Earth's crust and the most ...
aluminum bronze
any of a group of strong, corrosion-resistant alloys of copper containing from 4 to 15 percent aluminum and small amounts of other metals, used to make many machine parts and ...
Aluminum Company of America
(Alcoa), American corporation founded in 1888 (as the Pittsburgh Reduction Company) and now a leading producer of aluminum. Its operations range from mining bauxite and other ores to smelting and ...
aluminum processing
preparation of the ore for use in various products.
alunite
a widespread rock-forming sulfate mineral that occupies pockets or seams in volcanic rocks such as rhyolites, trachytes, and andesites, where it presumably formed through their chemical reaction with escaping sulfurous ...
alunogen
a sulfate mineral formed by sulfate solutions that attack aluminous minerals; alunogen is hydrated aluminum sulfate, formulated Al2(SO4)3·18H2O. It typically occurs as an efflorescence or crevice filling in pyrite-containing coal ...
Alushta
tourist resort, Crimea, Ukraine, on the south coast of the Crimean Peninsula. It is the site of a settlement dating from the 6th century AD; in the 14th century it ...
Alva
city, seat (1907) of Woods county, northwestern Oklahoma, U.S., on Salt Fork of the Arkansas River near the Kansas border. Established as a land office in 1893 at a Santa ...
Alvar
any of a group of South Indian mystics who in the 7th to 10th century wandered from temple to temple singing ecstatic hymns in adoration of the god Vishnu. The ...
Alvarado, Pedro de
a conqueror of Mexico and Central America for Spain.
Alvarez Bravo, Manuel
photographer who was most noted for his poetic images of Mexican people and places. He was part of the artistic renaissance that occurred after the Mexican Revolution (1910-20). Although he ...
Alvarez Quintero, Serafin and Joaquin
Spanish brothers who collaborated in almost 200 dramas depicting the life, manners, and speech of Andalusia. Their work was among the most popular in Spain during the early 20th century ...
Alvarez, A.
British novelist, essayist, and critic whose works explore the interaction of public and private forces that shape personality and behaviour.
Alvarez, Juan
revolutionary leader for more than 40 years, before and after the end of Spanish rule, and provisional president of Mexico in 1855.
Alvarez, Luis W.
American experimental physicist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1968 for work that included the discovery of many resonance particles (subatomic particles having extremely short lifetimes and ...
Alvaro, Corrado
Italian novelist and journalist whose works investigated the social and political pressures of life in the 20th century. His works were often set in Calabria, southern Italy.
Alvear, Marcelo T de
statesman and political leader who served as president of Argentina from 1922 until 1928.
Alvensleben-Erxleben, Gustav, Graf von
Prussian general and adjutant general who was the chief personal adviser to King (later Emperor) William I.
alveolar proteinosis
respiratory disorder caused by the filling of large groups of alveoli with protein and lipid (fat) particles. The alveoli are air sacs, minute structures in the lungs in which the ...
Alvsborg
former lan (county) of southwestern Sweden, located to the west and south of Lake Vanern. Formed as a county in 1634, it was merged with the counties of Goteborg och ...
Alwar
city, northeastern Rajasthan state, northwestern India. The city is surrounded by a wall and moat and is dominated by a fort on a conical hill against a backdrop of a ...
Alyattes
king of Lydia, in west-central Anatolia (reigned c. 610-c. 560 BC), whose conquest created the powerful but short-lived Lydian empire.
Alypius
writer on music whose Eisagoge mousike (Introduction to Music) contains a comprehensive summary of the complex system of Greek scales and their transpositions and includes tables of their method of ...
Alytus
city, southern Lithuania. It lies along the Neman (Lithuanian: Nemunas) River, 37 miles (60 km) south of Kaunas. The city dates from the 14th century. In the 20th century it ...
Alzheimer disease
degenerative brain disorder that develops in mid to late adulthood. It results in a progressive and irreversible decline in memory and a deterioration of various other cognitive abilities. The disease ...
Alzira
city, Valencia provincia, in the comunidad autonoma ("autonomous community") of Valencia, eastern Spain. It lies in the Ribera district, south of the city of Valencia. It originated as the Iberian ...
Alzon, Emmanuel d'
French ecclesiastic who founded the order of Augustinians of the Assumption (or Assumptionists).
AM
variation of the amplitude of a carrier wave (commonly a radio wave) in accordance with the characteristics of a signal, such as vocal or musical sound composed of audio-frequency waves. ...
Amadeus
king of Spain from Nov. 16, 1870, until his abdication on Feb. 11, 1873, after which the first Spanish republic was proclaimed.
Amadeus Quartet
English string quartet (1948-87), one of the most durable and highly regarded quartets of Europe. The quartet was formed in 1947, the result of an internment-camp meeting during World War ...
Amadeus VI
count of Savoy (1343-83) who significantly extended Savoy's territory and power.
Amadeus VII
count of Savoy (1383-91), during whose short rule the county of Savoy acquired Nice and other Provencal towns.
Amadeus VIII
count (1391-1416) and duke (1416-40) of Savoy, first member of the house of Savoy to assume the title of duke. His 42-year reign saw the extension of his authority from ...
Amadeus, Lake
salty mud basin in southwestern Northern Territory, Australia. The lake occupies a shallow trough filled with sediments washed from the MacDonnell (north) and Musgrave (south) ranges. It intermittently contains a ...
Amadi, Elechi
novelist and playwright best known for works that explore the role of the supernatural in Nigerian village life.
Amadis of Gaul
prose romance of chivalry, possibly Portuguese in origin. The first known version of this work, dating from 1508, was written in Spanish by Garci Ordonez (or Rodriguez) de Montalvo, who ...
Amado, Jorge
novelist whose stories of life in the Brazilian northeast won international acclaim.
Amagasaki
city and industrial suburb of the Osaka-Kobe (Hanshin) metropolitan area, Hyogo ken (prefecture), Honshu, Japan. In the feudal period it was a castle town. During the 20th century it attracted ...
amakihi
(Loxops virens), perhaps the most common native songbird in Hawaii, a member of the Hawaiian honeycreeper family, Drepanididae (order Passeriformes). It is 12 cm (5 inches) long, with yellow body, ...
Amakusa Islands
archipelago off western Kyushu, Japan, in the Amakusa Sea. Administered by Kumamoto ken (prefecture), it includes about 100 islands, the largest of which are Kami ("Upper") Island and Shimo ("Lower") ...
Amalaric
king of the Visigoths (526-531), son of Alaric I.
Amalasuntha
daughter of Theodoric the Great, Ostrogothic king of Italy, and queen and regent of the Ostrogoths (526-534).
Amalekite
member of an ancient nomadic tribe, or collection of tribes, described in the Old Testament as relentless enemies of Israel, even though they were closely related to Ephraim, one of ...
Amalfi
town and archiepiscopal see, Salerno provincia, Campania regione, southern Italy. It lies in the ravine of the Mulini Valley, along the Gulf of Salerno, southeast of Naples. Although it was ...
amalgam
alloy of mercury and one or more other metals. Amalgams are crystalline in structure, except for those with a high mercury content, which are liquid. Known since early times, they ...
Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union
former union of garment and apparel workers in the United States and Canada. It was formed in 1976 by the merger of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America (ACWA), a ...
Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union
the leading trade union in the manufacturing sector of the United Kingdom, created in 1992 through the merger of the Amalgamated Engineering Union (AEU) with the Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunication and ...
Amalienborg
architectural complex in Copenhagen, Den., built during the reign (1746-66) of King Frederick V and comprising the four buildings of the Amalienborg royal palace and the octagonal courtyard surrounded by ...
Amalric I
king of Jerusalem from 1163 to 1174, a strong ruler who protected the rights of vassals and helped prevent Muslim unity around the Holy Land.
Amalric II
king of Cyprus (1194-1205) and of Jerusalem (1197-1205) who ably ruled the two separated kingdoms.
Amalthaea
in Greek (originally Cretan) mythology, the foster mother of Zeus, king of the gods. She is sometimes represented as the goat that suckled the infant god in a cave in ...
Amalthea
small, potato-shaped moon of the planet Jupiter and the only Jovian satellite other than the four discovered by Galileo in 1610 to have been found by direct visual observation (as ...
Amambai Mountains
highlands in western Mato Grosso do Sul state, Brazil, and eastern Paraguay.
Amami Great Island
largest island in the Amami chain of the northern Ryukyu Islands, in Kagoshima ken (prefecture), Japan. Most of the 274-square-mile (709-square-km) island is mountainous and forested. A ...
Amana Colonies
settlement in Iowa county, east-central Iowa, U.S. It lies near the Iowa River, 20 miles (32 km) west-northwest of Iowa City, and comprises a group of seven small villages: Amana, ...
Amanita
genus of about 100 species of mushrooms of the family Amanitaceae, order Agaricales, some of which are poisonous to humans. The amanitas typically have white spores, a ring on the ...
Amanollah Khan
ruler of Afghanistan (1919-29) who led his country to full independence from British influence.
Amap
estado ("state"), northern Brazil. It is bounded on the north by a small portion of Suriname and by French Guiana, on the northeast by the Atlantic Ocean, ...
Amar Das
third Sikh Guru, appointed at the advanced age of 73, noted for his division of the Punjab into 22 Sikh dioceses and his dispatch of missionaries to spread the faith. ...
Amara, Lucine
American operatic soprano, prima donna of the Metropolitan Opera in New York.
Amarah, al-
city, southeastern Iraq. Situated on a low ridge beside the Tigris River, it is Iraq's chief port on that waterway south of Baghdad. It is a trade centre for agricultural ...
Amaranthaceae
the amaranth family of flowering plants in the order Caryophyllales, with about 60 genera and more than 800 species of herbs, with a few shrubs, trees, and vines, native to ...
Amarapura
town, central Myanmar (Burma). It lies on the left bank of the Irrawaddy River. A suburb of Mandalay, it is also known as Taung-myo (Southern Town) or Myohaung (Old City). ...
Amaravati
town, east-central Andhra Pradesh state, southern India. Situated on the Krishna River, it was an ancient Buddhist centre in the region. Its monasteries and university attracted students from throughout India ...
Amaravati sculpture
Indian sculpture that flourished in the Andhra region of southeastern India from about the 2nd century BC to the end of the 3rd century AD, during the rule of the ...
Amargosa Range
group of mountains in eastern California and southern Nevada, U.S., separating Death Valley from the Amargosa Desert. Part of the Basin Ranges of eastern California, the Amargosa Range extends 110 ...
Amarillo
city, seat (1887) of Potter county (and partly in Randall county), on the high plains of northern Texas, U.S. The chief city of the Texas Panhandle, Amarillo is located on ...
Amarna style
revolutionary style of Egyptian art created by Amenhotep IV, who took the name Akhenaton during his reign (1353-36 BC) in the 18th dynasty. Often referred to as the Amarna heresy, ...