ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0-9
Amud ... Anand, Mulk Raj
Amud
paleoanthropological site in Israel known for its human remains, which provide important evidence of the diversification and development of southwestern Asian Neanderthals. The site is centred on Amud Cave, overlooking ...
amulet
an object, either natural or man-made, believed to be endowed with special powers to protect or bring good fortune. Amulets are carried on the person or kept in the place ...
Amundsen Gulf
southeastern extension of the Beaufort Sea of the Arctic Ocean. Extending for 250 miles (400 km), it is bordered by Victoria Island on the east and separates Banks Island (north) ...
Amundsen, Roald
Norwegian explorer who was the first to reach the South Pole, the first to make a ship voyage through the Northwest Passage, and one of the first to cross the ...
Amuq
plain of southern Turkey, bordering Syria. Framed by mountains, the plain is about 190 square miles (500 square km) in area and forms a triangle between the cities of Antioch ...
Amur
oblast (province), far eastern Russia. It occupies the basins of the middle Amur River and its tributary the Zeya and extends up to the crest of the ...
Amur River
river of East Asia. It is the longest river of the Russian Far East, and it ranks behind only the Yangtze and Huang Ho (Yellow River) among China's longest rivers. ...
Amursk
city, Khabarovsk kray (region), far eastern Russia. It lies on the left bank of the Amur River, 25 miles (40 km) south of Komsomolsk-na-Amure. Founded in 1958, Amursk became one ...
Amuzgo
ethnolinguistic Indian group of eastern Guerrero and western Oaxaca states, southern Mexico. Their language is related to that of the Mixtec, their neighbours to the north and west. Although many ...
amygdule
secondary deposit of minerals found in a rounded, elongated, or almond-shaped cavity in igneous rock. The cavities (vesicles) were created by the expansion of gas bubbles or steam within lava. ...
amyl alcohol
any of eight organic compounds having the same molecular formula, C5H11OH, but different structures. The term is commonly applied to mixtures of these compounds, which are used as solvents for ...
amyl nitrite
drug once commonly used in the treatment of angina pectoris, a condition characterized by chest pain precipitated by oxygen deficiency in the heart muscle. Amyl nitrite is one of the ...
amylase
any member of a class of enzymes that catalyze the hydrolysis (splitting of a compound by addition of a water molecule) of starch into smaller carbohydrate molecules such as maltose ...
amyloidosis
disease characterized by the deposition of amyloid in the connective tissues, inhibiting normal organ functioning. Amyloid is a fibrous protein-carbohydrate complex that is derived from immunoglobulins, a group of proteins ...
Amyntas III
king of Macedonia from about 393 to 370/369. His skillful diplomacy created a minor role for Macedonia in Greek affairs and prepared the way for its emergence as a great ...
Amyot, Jacques
French bishop and classical scholar famous for his translation of Plutarch's Lives (Les Vies des hommes illustres Grecs et Romains, 1559), which became a major influence in shaping the Renaissance ...
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
degenerative neurological disorder that causes muscle atrophy and paralysis. The disease usually occurs after the age of 40; it affects men more often than women. ALS is frequently called Lou ...
An Chung-shik
the last gentleman painter of the great Korean Choson (Yi) dynasty (1392-1910).
An Lu-shan
Chinese general of Iranian and Turkish descent who, as leader of a rebellion in AD 755, proclaimed himself emperor and unsuccessfully attempted to found a dynasty to replace the T'ang ...
An-ch'ing
city situated on the north bank of the Yangtze River in southwestern Anhwei sheng (province), China. Situated at a crossing place on the Yangtze, it commands the narrow section of ...
An-k'ang
city in southeastern Shensi sheng (province), China. Situated in the narrow valley of the Han River between the Tsinling and Ta-pa mountain ranges, it has been an important trade centre ...
An-p'ing
town, seaport, and district of T'ai-nan shih (municipality), southwestern Taiwan, the traditional outport for T'ai-nan. It is the oldest Chinese settlement in southern Taiwan, dating from the late 16th century. ...
An-shan
city in central Liaoning sheng (province), China. It lies about 50 miles (80 km) southwest of Shen-yang (Mukden). Originally a post station on the road from China proper to Liao-yang, ...
An-shun
city, west central Kweichow Province (sheng), China. An-shun is a county-level municipality (shih) and the administrative centre of An-shun Prefecture (ti-ch'u). It first became a city in 1958, later lost ...
An-yang
city in Honan Province, northeastern China, on the An-yang Ho (An-yang River), a tributary of the Wei Ho. It was important in history as the site of the ancient city ...
Anabaena
genus of nitrogen-fixing blue-green algae with beadlike or barrellike cells and occasionally an enlarged cell (heterocyst), found as plankton in shallow water and on moist soil. There are both solitary ...
Anabaptist
(from Greek ana, "again")member of a fringe, or radical, movement of the Protestant Reformation and spiritual ancestor of modern Baptists, Mennonites, and Quakers. The movement's most distinctive ...
Anabasis
(Greek: "Upcountry March"), prose narrative, now in seven books, by Xenophon, of the story of the Greek mercenary soldiers who fought for Cyrus in his attempt to seize the Persian ...
anabatic wind
local air current that blows up a hill or mountain slope facing the Sun. During the day, the Sun heats such a slope (and the air over it) faster than ...
anabolism
the sequences of enzyme-catalyzed reactions by which relatively complex molecules are formed in living cells from nutrients with relatively simple structures. Anabolic processes, which include the synthesis of such cell ...
Anacardiaceae
the sumac family of flowering plants in the order Sapindales, with about 70 genera and 650 species of evergreen or deciduous trees, shrubs, and woody vines. It is native to ...
Anacharsis
(early 6th century BC?), legendary Scythian prince included in some ancient Greek lists as one of the Seven Wise Men and extolled as an exemplar of primitive virtue.
anachronism
(from Greek ana, "back," and chronos, "time"), neglect or falsification, intentional or not, of chronological relation. It is most frequently found in works of imagination that rest on a historical ...
Anacletus
antipope from 1130 to 1138 whose claims to the papacy against Pope Innocent II are still supported by some scholars. After study in Paris, he became a monk at Cluny ...
Anacletus, Saint
second pope (76-88 or 79-91) after St. Peter. According to St. Epiphanius and the priest Tyrannius Rufinus, he directed the Roman Church with St. Linus, successor to St. Peter, during ...
Anaconda
city, seat (since 1977) of Anaconda-Deer Lodge county, southwestern Montana, U.S., 23 miles (37 km) northwest of Butte. Laid out in 1883 as Copperopolis by Marcus Daly, founder of Montana's ...
anaconda
either of two species of constricting, water-loving snakes found in tropical South America.
Anaconda Company
one of the largest American mining companies, producing copper, aluminum, silver, and uranium. Since 1977 it has been a subsidiary of Atlantic Richfield Company. The company's headquarters are in Denver, ...
Anacortes
city, Skagit county, northwestern Washington, U.S., on the northern tip of Fidalgo Island. Connected by ferry to the San Juan Islands and Victoria, British Columbia, the city originated in the ...
Anacreon
ancient Greek poet who was, after Archilochus, the most important writer of personal lyric poetry in the Ionic dialect. Only fragments of his verse have survived.
anacrusis
in classical prosody, the up (or weak) beat, one or more syllables at the beginning of a line of poetry that are not regarded as a part of the metrical ...
Anadarko
city, seat (1907) of Caddo county, southwest-central Oklahoma, U.S. It lies along the Washita River. Founded in 1901 when the site was opened to white settlement, the city was named ...
anadiplosis
a device in which the last word or phrase of one clause, sentence, or line is repeated at the beginning of the next. An example is the phrase that is ...
Anadyr
town and administrative centre, Chukchi autonomous okrug (district), far northeastern Russia. It lies on the southern shore of the estuary of the Anadyr River, which empties into ...
Anadyr, Gulf of
gulf in far eastern Russia, in the northwestern part of the Bering Sea. The width of the gulf at its entrance is about 250 miles (400 km), and it runs ...
Anagni
town, Frosinone provincia, Lazio (Latium) regione, central Italy. It lies on a hill above the Sacco Valley, southeast of Rome. The ancient Anagnia, capital of the Hernici people, lost its ...
anagnorisis
(Greek: "recognition"), in a literary work, the startling discovery that produces a change from ignorance to knowledge. It is discussed by Aristotle in the Poetics as an essential part of ...
anagram
the transposing of the letters of a word or group of words to produce other words that possess meaning, preferably bearing some logical relation to the original. The construction of ...
Anah
town, western Iraq. Located on the Euphrates River and on a main road connecting Iraq and Syria, it is a local trade centre for crops grown in the fertile strip ...
Anaheim
city, Orange county, California, U.S. It lies on the plain of the Santa Ana River, 25 miles (40 km) southeast of Los Angeles.
Anahiti
ancient Iranian goddess of royalty, war, and fertility; she is particularly associated with the last. Possibly of Mesopotamian origin, her cult was made prominent by Artaxerxes II, and statues and ...
Anahuac
historical and geographic region of Mexico. The heartland of Aztec Mexico, Anahuac (Nahuatl: "Land by the Water") designated that part of New Spain that became independent Mexico in 1821. The ...
Anai Peak
peak in eastern Kerala state, southwestern India. Located in the Western Ghats range, it rises to 8,842 feet (2,695 m) and is peninsular India's highest peak. From this point radiate ...
Anaimalai Hills
mountain range in the Western Ghats, Tamil Nadu state, southern India. The Anaimalai Hills are a junction of the Eastern Ghats and Western Ghats and have a general northwest-southeast trend. ...
anal canal
the terminal portion of the digestive tract, distinguished from the rectum because of the transition of its internal surface from a mucous membrane layer (endodermal) to one of skinlike tissue ...
anal stage
in Freudian psychoanalytic theory, the period in a child's psychosexual development during which the child's main concerns are with the processes of elimination. The anal stage, generally the second and ...
analcime
common feldspathoid mineral, a hydrated sodium aluminosilicate (NaAlSi2O6·H2O) that occurs in seams and cavities in basalt, diabase, granite, or gneiss and in extensive beds thought to have formed by precipitation ...
analgesia
loss of sensation of pain that results from an interruption in the nervous system pathway between sense organ and brain. Different forms of sensation (e.g., touch, temperature, and pain) stimulating ...
analgesic
drug that relieves pain without blocking the conduction of nerve impulses or markedly altering the function of the sensory apparatus.
analog computer
any of a class of devices in which continuously variable physical quantities such as electrical potential, fluid pressure, or mechanical motion are represented in a way analogous to the corresponding ...
analogue
in literature, a story for which there is a counterpart or another version in other literatures. Several of the stories in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales are versions of tales ...
analogy
(from Greek ana logon, "according to a ratio"), originally, a similarity in proportional relationships. It may be a similarity between two figures (e.g., triangles) that differ in scale or between ...
analogy
in biology, similarity of function and superficial resemblance of structures that have different origins. For example, the wings of a fly, a moth, and a bird are analogous because they ...
analysis
in physics and chemistry, determination of the physical properties or chemical composition of samples of matter or, particularly in modern physics, of the energy and other properties of subatomic particles ...
analysis
a branch of mathematics that deals with continuous change and with certain general types of processes that have emerged from the study of continuous change, such as limits, differentiation, and ...
analytic geometry
mathematical subject in which algebraic symbolism and methods are used to represent and solve problems in geometry. The importance of analytic geometry is that it establishes a correspondence between geometric ...
analytic language
any language that uses specific grammatical words, or particles, rather than inflection (q.v.), to express syntactic relations within sentences. An analytic language is commonly identified with an isolating language (q.v.), ...
analytic philosophy
a loosely related set of approaches to philosophical problems, dominant in Anglo-American philosophy from the early 20th century, that emphasizes the study of language and the logical analysis of concepts. ...
analytic proposition
in logic, a statement or judgment that is necessarily true on purely logical grounds and serves only to elucidate meanings already implicit in the subject; its truth is thus guaranteed ...
analytic psychology
the psychoanalytic method of Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung as he distinguished it from that of Sigmund Freud. Jung attached less importance than did Freud to the role of sexuality in ...
Anambra
state, east-central Nigeria. Anambra state was first formed in 1976 from the northern half of East-Central state, and in 1991 it was considerably reduced in area by an administrative reorganization ...
anamnesis
a recalling to mind, or reminiscence. Anamnesis is often used as a narrative technique in fiction and poetry as well as in memoirs and autobiographies. A notable example is Marcel ...
anamorphosis
in the visual arts, an ingenious perspective technique used to give a distorted image of the subject represented in a picture when seen from the usual viewpoint, but so executed ...
Anan
city, Tokushima Prefecture (ken), Shikoku, Japan, on the Naka-gawa (Naka River), facing the Kii-suido (Kii Channel) between the Inland Sea and the Pacific Ocean. It was created in 1958 by ...
Anan ben David
Persian Jew, founder of the Ananites, a heretical and antirabbinical order from which the still-existing Karaite sect developed.
Anand, Mulk Raj
prominent Indian author of novels, short stories, and critical essays in English, who is known for his realistic and sympathetic portrayal of the poor in India. He is considered a ...

Copyright © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica