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calcarenite ... Calisher, Hortense

calcarenite: sedimentary rock formed of calcareous particles ranging in diameter from 0.06 to 2 mm (0.002 to 0.08 inch) that have been deposited mechanically rather than from solution. The particles, which ...
calcareous sponge: any of a class (Calcispongiae, or Calcarea) of sponges characterized by skeletons composed of calcium carbonate spicules (needlelike structures). Calcareous sponges occur mainly on the rocky bottoms of the continental ...
Calchas: in Greek mythology, the son of Thestor (a priest of Apollo) and the most famous soothsayer among the Greeks at the time of the Trojan War. He foretold the duration ...
Calcisol: one of the 30 soil groups in the classification system of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Calcisols are characterized by a layer of translocated (migrated) calcium carbonate-whether soft and ...
calcite: the most common form of natural calcium carbonate (CaCo₃), a widely distributed mineral known for the beautiful development and great variety of its crystals. It is polymorphous (same chemical formula ...
calcitonin: a protein hormone secreted in humans and other mammals by parafollicular cells in the thyroid gland, and in birds, fishes, and other nonmammalian vertebrates by cells of the ultimobranchial bodies, ...
calcium: chemical element, one of the alkaline-earth metals of main Group IIa of the periodic table. It is the most abundant metallic element in the human body and the fifth most ...
calcium deficiency: condition in which calcium is insufficient or is not utilized properly. Calcium is the mineral that is most likely to be deficient in the average diet. It is the chief ...
calcrete: calcium-rich duricrust, a hardened layer in or on a soil. It is formed on calcareous materials as a result of climatic fluctuations in arid and semiarid regions. Calcite is dissolved ...
calculator: machine for automatically performing arithmetical operations and certain mathematical functions. Modern calculators are descendants of a digital arithmetic machine devised by Blaise Pascal in 1642. Later in the 17th century, ...
calculus: branch of mathematics concerned with the calculation of instantaneous rates of change (differential calculus) and the summation of infinitely many small factors to determine some whole (integral calculus). Two mathematicians, ...
calculus of variations: branch of mathematics concerned with the problem of finding a function for which the value of a certain integral is either the largest or the smallest possible. Many problems of ...
Calcutta: city, capital of West Bengal state, and former capital (1772-1912) of British India. It is India's largest city and one of its major ports. The city is located on the ...
Calcutta, University of: state-controlled institution of higher learning founded by the British in India in 1857. Modeled on the University of London, Calcutta was originally a purely affiliating university that offered no actual ...
Caldas: departamento, west-central Colombia. It is situated in the Cordillera Central of the Andes Mountains and is bounded by the Magdalena River on the east and the Cauca ...
Caldas da Rainha: town, Leiria district, west-central Portugal, north of Lisbon. Its name, meaning "the queen's hot springs," recalls Queen Leonor, who founded a hospital there in 1485. By the end of the ...
Caldecott Medal: annual prize awarded "to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children." It was established in 1938 by Frederic G. Melcher, chairman of the board of the ...
Caldecott, Randolph: English artist chiefly known for the gently satirical drawings and coloured book illustrations that won him great popularity.
Calder, Alexander: American sculptor best known as the originator of the mobile, a type of kinetic sculpture the delicately balanced or suspended components of which move in response to motor power or ...
caldera: (Spanish: "caldron"), large bowlshaped volcanic depression more than one kilometre in diameter and rimmed by infacing scarps. Calderas usually, if not always, form by the collapse of the top of ...
Calderdale: westernmost metropolitan borough, metropolitan county of West Yorkshire, England. The metropolitan borough is part of the historic county of Yorkshire, except for a small area west of Todmorden that belongs ...
Calderon de la Barca, Pedro: dramatist and poet who succeeded Lope de Vega as the greatest Spanish playwright of the Golden Age. Among his best-known secular dramas are El medico de su honra (1635; The ...
Calderon, Rodrigo, conde de Oliva, marques de Siete Iglesias: Spanish royal favourite who enjoyed considerable authority during the ascendancy of Francisco Gomez, duque de Lerma in the reign of Philip III.
Calderon, Sila Maria: Puerto Rican politician and governor of Puerto Rico (2001-05), the first woman to hold the post.
Calderone, Mary Steichen: American physician and writer who, as cofounder and head of the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS), crusaded for the inclusion of responsible sex education in ...
Calderwood, David: Scottish Presbyterian minister and historian of the Church of Scotland.
Caldey Island: island in Carmarthen Bay of the Bristol Channel, Pembrokeshire (Sir Benfro) county, Wales. It lies 2.3 miles (3.7 km) south of the port of Tenby. The island is 1.5 miles ...
Caldicott, Helen Broinowski: Australian-born American physician and activist whose advocacy focused on the medical and environmental hazards of nuclear weapons.
Caldwell: city, seat (1892) of Canyon county, southwestern Idaho, U.S., on the Boise River. It originated (1883) as a construction camp for the Oregon Short Line Railroad and was named for ...
Caldwell: borough (township), Essex county, northeastern New Jersey, U.S. It lies 9 miles (14 km) northwest of Newark. Settled in the 1780s and incorporated in 1892, it is known as the ...
Caldwell, Erskine: American author whose unadorned novels and stories about the rural poor of the American South mix violence and sex in grotesque tragicomedy. His works achieved a worldwide readership and were ...
Caldwell, Sarah: American opera conductor, producer, and impresario, noted for her innovative productions of challenging and difficult works.
Caldwell, Taylor: highly popular American novelist, known for her family sagas and historical fiction.
Caleb: in the Old Testament, one of the spies sent by Moses from Kadesh in southern Palestine to spy out the land of Canaan. Only Caleb and Joshua advised the Hebrews ...
Caledon River: tributary of the Orange River in southeastern Africa. It rises in the Drakensberg, on the Lesotho-South Africa border, and flows generally southwest, forming most of the boundary between Lesotho and ...
Caledonia: historical area of north Britain beyond Roman control, roughly corresponding to modern Scotland. It was inhabited by the tribe of Caledones (Calidones). The Romans first invaded the district under Agricola ...
Caledonia: county, northeastern Vermont, U.S., bounded on the southeast by New Hampshire, the Connecticut River constituting the border. Piedmont terrain occupies most of the county except the northeastern corner, which lies ...
Caledonian Canal: waterway running southwest to northeast across the Glen Mor fault of northern Scotland and connecting the North Sea with the North Atlantic. In 1773 James Watt was employed by the ...
Caledonian orogenic belt: range of mountains situated in northwestern Europe, developed as a result of the opening, closure, and destruction of the Iapetus Ocean in the period from the start of the Cambrian ...
calendar: any system for dividing time over extended periods, such as days, months, or years, and arranging such divisions in a definite order. A calendar is convenient for regulating civil life ...
calendering: process of smoothing and compressing a material (notably paper) during production by passing a single continuous sheet through a number of pairs of heated rolls. The rolls in combination are ...
Calepino, Ambrogio: one of the earliest Italian lexicographers, from whose name came the once-common Italian word calepino and English word calepin, for "dictionary." He became an Augustinian monk and compiled a dictionary ...
Calexico: city and port of entry, Imperial county, southern California, U.S. It is located at the southern end of the Imperial Valley and is separated from the city of Mexicali, Mexico, ...
calf roping: rodeo event in which a mounted cowboy chases a calf, lassoes it, dismounts, throws the calf to the ground by hand, and ties up three of its feet with a ...
Calgary: city, southern Alberta, Canada. It lies on the western edge of the Great Plains, at the confluence of the Bow and Elbow rivers, 185 miles (298 km) south of Edmonton. ...
Calhoun: city, seat of Gordon county, northwestern Georgia, U.S. It lies near the Oostanaula River, 21 miles (34 km) northeast of Rome. Known formerly as Oothcaloga ("Place of the Beaver Dams") ...
Calhoun: county, central South Carolina, U.S. It consists of a low-lying Coastal Plain region south of Columbia. At the southeastern extremity is Lake Marion, and the Congaree River forms the northeastern ...
Calhoun, John C: American political leader who was a congressman, secretary of war, seventh vice president (1825-32), senator, and secretary of state. He championed states' rights and slavery and was a symbol of ...
Calhoun, Lee: American athlete, the first to win successive gold medals in the Olympics for the 110-metre hurdles.
Cali: city, capital of Valle del Cauca departamento, western Colombia, on both sides of the Cali River at an elevation of 3,327 feet (1,014 m). The city, set in the intermontane ...
calibre: in firearms, unit of measure indicating the interior, or bore, diameter of a gun barrel and the diameter of the gun's ammunition; or the length of a gun expressed in ...
calico: all-cotton fabric woven in plain, or tabby, weave and printed with simple designs in one or more colours. Calico originated in Calicut, India, by the 11th century, if not earlier, ...
calico bass: popular North American game and food fish. See crappie.
Calidris: bird genus in the family Scolopacidae (order Charadriiformes), which includes the shorebirds known as dunlin, knot, and sanderling (qq.v.). Some sandpipers are also classified as Calidris (see sandpiper).
California: constituent state of the United States of America. It has an area of 158,706 square miles (411,049 square kilometres), exceeded only by Alaska and Texas. The state is bounded on ...
California Academy of Sciences: in San Francisco, oldest scientific institution in the western United States (incorporated 1853). The academy's complex of buildings is situated in Golden Gate Park. It includes a natural-history museum, the ...
California Aqueduct: principal water-conveyance structure of the California State Water Project, U.S. From the Sacramento River delta east of San Francisco, it runs south through the San Joaquin Valley and over the ...
California Current: surface oceanic current, southward-flowing continuation of the Aleutian Current along the west coast of North America between latitudes 48° N and 23° N. The California Current's surface velocity is commonly ...
California Institute of Technology: private coeducational university and research institute in Pasadena, California, U.S., emphasizing graduate and undergraduate instruction and research in pure and applied science and engineering. The institute comprises six divisions: biology; ...
California Institute of the Arts: private coeducational institution of higher learning in Valencia, California, U.S., dedicated to the visual and performing arts. It consists of six schools: art, critical studies, dance, film/video, music, and theatre. ...
California laurel: aromatic evergreen tree of the laurel family (Lauraceae). It occurs on the Pacific coast of North America from Oregon to California and grows about 15 to 25 metres (50 to ...
California nutmeg: (Torreya californica), an ornamental evergreen tree of the yew family (Taxaceae), found naturally only in California. Growing to a height of 24 m (about 79 feet) or more, the tree ...
California poppy: (Eschscholzia californica), annual garden plant of the poppy family (Papaveraceae) native to the western coast of North America. It has become naturalized in parts of southern Europe, Asia, and Australia. ...
California State University: extensive system of public institutions of higher education in California, U.S., one of the largest such systems in the country. It has campuses at Bakersfield, Channel Islands (at Camarillo), Chico, ...
California University of Pennsylvania: public, coeducational institution of higher learning in California, Pennsylvania, U.S. It is one of 14 universities in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education. The university is composed of colleges ...
California, Gulf of: large inlet of the eastern Pacific Ocean along the northwestern coast of Mexico. It is enclosed on the west by the mountainous peninsula of Baja California and on the east ...
California, University of: system of public universities in California, U.S., with campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, and Santa Cruz. The university traces its ...
Californian Indian: member of any of the aboriginal North American peoples in the area roughly corresponding to California and the northern Baja California peninsula.
californite: jadelike variety of the mineral vesuvianite (q.v.).
californium: synthetic chemical element of the actinide series in Group IIIb of the periodic table, atomic number 98. Not occurring in nature, californium (as the isotope californium-245) was discovered (1950) by ...
Caligula: Roman emperor from 37 to 41, in succession to Tiberius, who effected the transfer of the last legion that had been under a senatorial proconsul (in Africa) to an imperial ...
Calinescu, Armand: statesman who, as prime minister of Romania (March-September 1939), provided the major administrative inspiration and support for King Carol II's royal dictatorship.
caliper: measuring instrument that consists of two adjustable legs or jaws for measuring the dimensions of material parts. The calipers on the right side of the have an adjusting screw ...
caliph: ("successor"), ruler of the Muslim community. When Muhammad died (June 8, 632), Abu Bakr succeeded to his political and administrative functions as khalifah rasul Allah, or "successor of the Messenger ...
Caliphate: the political-religious state comprising the Muslim community and the lands and peoples under its dominion in the centuries following the death (AD 632) of the Prophet Muhammad. Ruled by a ...
Calisher, Hortense: American writer of novels, novellas, and short stories, known for the elegant style and insightful rendering of characters in her often semiautobiographical short fiction, much of which was published originally ...