extrusive igneous rock that contains calcium-rich plagioclase feldspar (usually labradorite or bytownite), feldspathoid (usually nepheline or leucite), olivine, and pyroxene (titanaugite). Basanite grades into tephrite, which contains no olivine.
Hindu religious reformer, teacher, theologian, and administrator of the royal treasury of the Calukya king Bijjala I (reigned 1156-67). Basava is the subject of the Basava-Purana, one ...
an outstanding Mughal painter, renowned as a superb colourist and as a sensitive observer of human nature. His name indicates that he may have been a member of the Ahir, ...
American anthropologist who served as chairman (1956-57) of the anthropology department and acting director of African studies (1953, 1957) at Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill.
in chemistry, any substance that in water solution is slippery to the touch, tastes bitter, changes the colour of indicators (e.g., turns red litmus paper blue), reacts with acids to ...
in mathematics, an arbitrarily chosen whole number greater than 1 in terms of which any number can be expressed as a sum of that base raised to various powers. See ...
pocket-billiards game, named for the similarity in its scoring system to the American game played with bat and ball, in which players attempt to score runs by pocketing 21 consecutively ...
museum and honorary society, Cooperstown, New York, U.S. The origins of the hall can be traced to 1935, when plans were first put forward for the 1939 celebration of the ...
influential German educational reformer who advocated the use of realistic teaching methods and the introduction of nature study, physical education, and manual training into the schools. He also called for ...
capital of the half canton of Basel-Stadt (with which it is virtually coextensive), northern Switzerland. It lies along the Rhine River, at the mouths of the Birs and Wiese rivers, ...
privately owned zoological garden in Basel, Switz., noted for its outstanding work in the breeding of the Indian rhinoceros and the pygmy hippopotamus. The zoo was founded in 1874 for ...
moderate Protestant Reformation statement of Reformed doctrine composed of 12 articles. It was first drafted by John Oecolampadius, the Reformer of Basel, and was compiled in fuller form in 1532 ...
a general council of the Roman Catholic church held in Basel, Switz. It was called by Pope Martin V a few weeks before his death in 1431 and then confirmed ...
Halbkanton ("demicanton"), northern Switzerland, traversed by the Jura Mountains and drained by the Ergolz and Birs rivers. It was formed in 1833 by the division of Basel canton into two ...
Halbkanton ("demicanton"), northern Switzerland, consisting of the city of Basel (q.v.) and two small villages north of the Rhine. Occupying an area of 14 square miles (37 square km), it ...
in hydrology and geomorphology, limit below which a stream cannot erode. Upon entering a still body of water, a stream's velocity is checked and thus it loses its eroding power; ...
the Madeira-vine family of flowering plants in the order Caryophyllales, with 4 genera and 15 to 25 species of herbaceous perennial vines, distributed primarily in the New World tropics. Members ...
ancient breed of hound dog native to central Africa, where it is used to point and retrieve and to drive quarry into a net. It is also known as the ...
(German: BASF Limited-liability Company), German chemical and plastics manufacturing company originally founded in 1865 and today operating in some 30 countries. The BASF Group produces oil and natural gas, chemicals, ...
country frequently cited in the Old Testament and later important in the Roman Empire; it is located in what is now Syria. Bashan was the northernmost of the three ancient ...
("corrupted head," or "leaderless"), mercenary soldier belonging to the skirmishing or irregular troops of the Ottoman Empire, notorious for their indiscipline, plundering, and brutality. Originally describing the homeless beggars who ...
Lebanese prince who established hegemony over Lebanon in the first half of the 19th century and ruled it under Ottoman and, later, Egyptian suzerainty from 1788 to 1840.
member of a Turkic people, numbering more than 1,070,000 in the late 20th century, settled in the eastern part of European Russia, between the Volga River and the Ural Mountains, ...
Russian emigre best known for her sensitive and girlishly candid autobiography in French, Journal de Marie Bashkirtseff, avec un portrait, 2 vol. (1887; Journal of Marie Bashkirtseff).
republic in Russia, extending from the western slopes of the southern Ural Mountains in the east to the rolling hills of the Bugulma-Belebey Upland in the west.
considered the greatest of the Japanese haiku poets, who greatly enriched the 17-syllable haiku form, embuing it with the spirit of Zen Buddhism and making it an accepted medium of ...
simplified form of English developed between 1926 and 1930 by the British writer and linguist Charles Kay Ogden. Intended for use as an international second language, it enjoyed some popularity ...
a steelmaking method in which pure oxygen is blown into a bath of molten blast-furnace iron and scrap. The oxygen initiates a series of intensively exothermic (heat-releasing) reactions, including the ...
in fungi, a large sporophore, or fruiting body, in which sexually produced spores are formed on the surface of club-shaped structures (basidia). Basidiocarps are found among the members of the ...
a large and diverse class of fungi (division Mycota) including jelly and shelf, or bracket, fungi; mushrooms, puffballs, and stinkhorns; and the rusts and smuts. The club-shaped spore-bearing organ (basidium) ...
spice consisting of the dried leaves of Ocimum basilicum, an annual herb of the family Lamiaceae (Labiatae) native to India and Iran. A number of varieties are used in commerce ...
Byzantine emperor (976-1025), who extended imperial rule in the Balkans (notably Bulgaria), Mesopotamia, Georgia, and Armenia and increased his domestic authority by attacking the powerful landed interests of the military ...
Greek theologian and bishop of Ancyra (now Ankara, Tur.) whose attempt to mediate a controversy in the Eastern Church was rejected by the heretical faction and brought about his exile.
early Church Father who defended the orthodox faith against the heretical Arians. As bishop of Caesarea he wrote several works on monasticism, theology, and canon law. He was declared a ...
Russian impresario who in 1932 became codirector with Rene Blum of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. He lost the celebrated premier danseur Leonide Massine and several other dancers to ...
a eucharistic service used by Eastern Orthodox and Eastern-rite Catholic churches 10 times during the year: January 1 (the feast of St. Basil), the first five Sundays in Lent, Holy ...
island and city, southern Philippines, in the Celebes Sea. Basilan island lies 5 miles (8 km) off the southern tip of the Zamboanga Peninsula of Mindanao, across the Basilan Strait. ...
district, administrative and historic county of Essex, England, about 25 miles (40 km) east of central London. After World War I many Londoners settled in the Billericay area of Essex. ...
new town, Basildon district, administrative and historic county of Essex, England. Basildon new town was established in 1949. It was one of eight established 20 to 30 miles (32 to ...
Neapolitan soldier, public official, poet, and short-story writer whose Lo cunto de li cunti, 50 zestful tales written in Neapolitan, was one of the earliest such collections based on folktales ...
member of any of several Christian monastic communities of the Byzantine Rite, so named because they claim St. Basil the Great as their spiritual father. (The Basilians is also the ...
in the Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox churches, a canonical title of honour given to church buildings that are distinguished either by their antiquity or by their role as international ...
(from Greek basilikos, "imperial"), 9th-century Byzantine code of law initiated by the emperor Basil I and completed after the accession of his son Leo VI the Wise.
region, southern Italy, along the Golfo di Taranto (Gulf of Taranto), consisting of the provinces of Potenza and Matera, with a total area of 3,858 sq mi (9,992 sq km). ...
scholar and teacher, who founded a school of Gnosticism known as the Basilidians. He probably was a pupil of Menander in Antioch, and he was teaching in Alexandria at the ...
religious leader who, on Jan. 14, 1951, became the first Ethiopian bishop to be consecrated abuna, or primate, of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. From the 4th century the Ethiopian Church ...
(Basiliscus), any of four species of lizards belonging to the family Iguanidae. The name is applied because of a resemblance to the legendary monster called basilisk.
extinct genus of primitive whales of the family Basilosauridae (suborder Archaeoceti) found in Middle and Late Eocene rocks in North America and northern Africa (the Eocene Epoch lasted from 57.8 ...
arid physiographic province occupying much of the western and southwestern part of the United States. The region comprises almost all of Nevada, the western half of Utah, southeastern California, and ...
borough and district, administrative and historic county of Hampshire, England, west-southwest of London. The borough is largely rural but includes the market town of Basingstoke. Its 17th-century cloth industry has ...
city, southeastern West Bengal state, northeastern India. Basirhat lies just south of the Ichamati (Upper Jamuna) River near the border with Bangladesh. Connected by road and rail with Barasat, it ...
(Centaurea americana), annual garden flower of the family Asteraceae, native to southwestern North America. The basket-flower has oblong leaves and rose-coloured, compact heads of disk flowers that appear to be ...
(Aurinia, or Alyssum, saxatile), ornamental perennial plant, of the mustard family (Brassicaceae), with golden-yellow clusters of tiny flowers and gray-green foliage. It is native to sunny areas of central and ...
game played between two teams of five players each on a rectangular court, usually indoors. Each team tries to score by tossing the ball through the opponent's goal, an elevated ...
art and craft of making interwoven objects, usually containers, from flexible vegetable fibres, such as twigs, grasses, osiers, bamboo, and rushes, or from plastic or other synthetic materials. The containers ...
huge, sluggish shark of the family Cetorhinidae, usually classified as Cetorhinus maximus but possibly separable into more than one distinct species. Named for its habit of floating or slowly swimming ...
insurrection against Soviet rule in Central Asia, begun in 1917 and largely suppressed by 1926. An amalgam of Muslim traditionalists and common bandits, the Basmachi were soon widespread over most ...
in Islam, the formula-prayer: bi'sm Allah ar-rahman ar-rahim, "in the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate." This invocation, which was first introduced by the Qur'an, appears at the beginning ...
school of Pahari miniature painting that flourished in the Indian hill states during the late 17th and the 18th centuries, known for its bold vitality of colour and line. Though ...
Soviet physicist, winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1964, with Aleksandr Mikhaylovich Prokhorov of the Soviet Union and Charles H. Townes of the United States, for basic research ...
member of a people who live in both Spain and France in areas bordering the Bay of Biscay and encompassing the western foothills of the Pyrenees Mountains. In the late ...
comunidad autonoma ("autonomous community") and historic region of northern Spain encompassing the provincias of Alava, Guipuzcoa, and Biscay (Vizcaya) and established by the statute ...
