a type of literary composition popular especially in medieval times in which two or more usually allegorical characters discuss or debate some subject, most often a question of love, morality, ...
formal, oral confrontation between two individuals, teams, or groups who present arguments to support opposing sides of a question, generally according to a set form or procedure.
loan contract issued by a company or public body specifying an obligation to return borrowed funds and pay interest, secured by all or part of the company's property. Certificates specifying ...
small card, similar to a credit card, offering means of paying for a purchase through transfer of funds from the purchaser's bank account to the vendor. Financial institutions that process ...
wooden figure carved in the form of a woman by the Senufo people of West Africa and used as a "rhythm pounder" in certain rituals performed to promote the fertility ...
situated in central Mali on a section of the Niger River between Mopti, located 50 mi (80 km) to the south, and Timbuktu, 150 mi to the northeast. In this ...
prophet and heroine in the Old Testament (Judg. 4 and 5), who inspired the Israelites to a mighty victory over their Canaanite oppressors (the people who lived in the Promised ...
large brightly coloured guenon widely distributed through central Africa and into Ethiopia and western Kenya, particularly in forests near rivers and swamps. DeBrazza's monkey is a white-bearded primate with speckled ...
French political leader, a close aide of President Charles de Gaulle; after playing a prominent part in the writing of the constitution of the Fifth Republic, he served as its ...
since 1876, the seat of Hajdu-Bihar megye (county), and one of five Hungarian cities having county status. One of the most important cities in eastern Hungary, Debrecen is situated on ...
guide to the British peerage (titled aristocracy), first published in London in 1802 by John Debrett as Peerage of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Debrett's ...
relationship existing between two persons in which one, the debtor, can be compelled to furnish services, money, or goods to the other, the creditor. This relationship may be created by ...
French composer whose works have been a seminal force in the music of the 20th century. He developed a highly original system of harmony and musical structure that expressed in ...
a mathematical expression derived to elucidate certain properties of solutions of electrolytes, that is, substances present in the solutions in the form of charged particles (ions). Such solutions often behave ...
a period of decline or deterioration of art or literature that follows an era of great achievement. Examples include the Silver Age of Latin literature, which began about AD 18 ...
any of several poets or other writers of the end of the 19th century, including the French Symbolist poets in particular and their contemporaries in England, the later generation of ...
Italian artistic movement that derived its name but not all its characteristics from the French and English Decadents, who flourished in the last 10 years of the 19th century. Writers ...
design that is printed on specially prepared paper to form a film that can be transferred to any surface. Such films are widely used for decorating and labeling any objects ...
league of 10 ancient Greek cities in eastern Palestine that was formed after the Roman conquest of Palestine in 63 BC, when Pompey the Great reorganized the Middle East to ...
American photographer whose images of African Americans chronicle subjects such as daily life in Harlem, the civil rights movement, and jazz musicians.
athletic competition lasting two consecutive days in which contestants take part in 10 track-and-field events. It was introduced as a three-day event at the Olympic Games in 1912. Decathlon events ...
city, seat (1891) of Morgan county, northern Alabama, U.S. It lies along the Tennessee River about 25 miles (40 km) southwest of Huntsville. Andrew Jackson gave land grants in the ...
city, seat (1829) of Macon county, central Illinois, U.S. It lies along a bend in the Sangamon River (there dammed to form Lake Decatur), about halfway between Springfield and Champaign. ...
city, seat (1823) of DeKalb county, northwestern Georgia, U.S. It is an eastern suburb of Atlanta. Named for Stephen Decatur, the American naval hero of the War of 1812, it ...
U.S. naval officer who held important commands in the War of 1812. Replying to a toast after returning from successful engagements abroad (1815), he replied with the famous words: "Our ...
proportionality between the size of a population of radioactive atoms and the rate at which the population decays, as expressed in the equation dN/dt = -lambdaN, in which dN is ...
the entire southern peninsula of India south of the Narmada River, marked centrally by a high triangular tableland. The name derives from the Sanskrit daksina ("south"). The plateau is bounded ...
style of miniature painting that flourished from the late 16th century among the Deccani sultanates in peninsular India. The style is a sensitive, highly integrated blend of indigenous and foreign ...
impact injury to a body within or upon a rapidly moving object caused by the forces exerted when the object is brought to a sudden halt. Deceleration injury can occur ...
12th month of the Gregorian calendar. Its name is derived from decem, Latin for "ten," indicating its position in the early Roman calendar. See month and the ...
any of the Russian revolutionaries who led an unsuccessful uprising on Dec. 14 (Dec. 26, New Style), 1825, and through their martyrdom provided a source of inspiration to succeeding generations ...
(Latin: "ten men"), in ancient Rome, any official commission of 10. The designation is most often used in reference to decemviri legibus scribundis, a temporary legislative commission that supplanted the ...
bay and resort town, southeastern Queensland, Australia. In 1823 the explorer John Oxley named the local stream the Deception River (now called the Caboolture River), because of the numerous shoals ...
one of the South Shetland Islands, in the Drake Passage, off the Antarctic Peninsula. It is a sunken volcano, the crater of which, about 10 miles (16 km) in diameter, ...
French archaeologist and author of an important work covering the entire field of the prehistory of France, Le Manuel d'archeologie prehistorique, celtique et gallo-romaine (1908-14; "Textbook of Prehistoric, Celtic, and ...
(dB), unit for expressing the ratio between two amounts of electric or acoustic power or for measuring the relative loudness of sounds. One decibel (0.1 bel) equals 10 times the ...
vegetation composed primarily of broad-leaved trees that shed all their leaves during one season. Deciduous forest is found in three middle-latitude regions with a temperate climate characterized by a winter ...
in mathematics, positional numeral system employing 10 as the base and requiring 10 different numerals, the digits 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. It also requires ...
city, Severocesky kraj (region), Czech Republic, in the gorge of the Elbe (Labe) River and near the German border. Dominated by its 18th-century castle on a 165-foot (50-metre) crag, it ...
for a class of questions in mathematics and formal logic, the problem of finding, after choosing any question of the class, an algorithm or repetitive procedure that will yield a ...
in statistics, a set of quantitative methods for reaching optimal decisions. A solvable decision problem must be capable of being tightly formulated in terms of initial conditions and choices or ...
game for two or four players, designed for the limited space aboard ship and also played as a garden game. It combines lawn tennis and quoits. A rubber ring, or ...
in U.S. history, document that was approved by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, and that announced the separation of 13 North American British colonies from Great Britain. It ...
one of the basic charters of human liberties, containing the principles that inspired the French Revolution. Its 17 articles, adopted between August 20 and August 26, 1789, by France's National ...
(1766), declaration by the British Parliament that accompanied the repeal of the Stamp Act. It stated that the British Parliament's taxing authority was the same in America as in Great ...
in law, a judicial judgment intended to fix or elucidate litigants' rights that were previously uncertain or doubtful. A declaratory judgment is binding but is distinguished from other judgments or ...
in astronomy, the angular distance of a body north or south of the celestial equator. Declination and right ascension, an east-west coordinate, together define the position of an object in ...
physiological effects of the formation of gas bubbles in the body because of rapid transition from a high-pressure environment to one of lower pressure. Pilots of unpressurized aircraft, underwater divers, ...
any drug used to relieve swelling of the nasal mucosa accompanying such conditions as the common cold and hay fever. When administered in nasal sprays or drops or in devices ...
form of philosophical and literary analysis, derived mainly from work begun in the 1960s by the French philosopher Jacques Derrida, that questions the fundamental conceptual distinctions, or "oppositions," in Western ...
(French: "wood decoration"), in decorative arts, trompe l'oeil decoration of porcelain and faience to simulate grained and knotted wood with the likeness of an engraving "nailed" to it. This device ...
any of those arts that are concerned chiefly with the design and decoration of objects that are chiefly prized for their utility, rather than for their purely aesthetic qualities. Ceramics, ...
in literary style, the appropriate rendering of a character, action, speech, or scene. The concept of literary propriety, in its simplest stage of development, was outlined by Aristotle. In later ...
(French: "cutting out"), the art of cutting and pasting cutouts to simulate painting on a wood, metal, or glass surface. There are many variations in technique, but the four basic ...
governor-general of French Indochina for the provisional (Vichy) French government during World War II (1940-45). His reforms, which were designed to undermine Japanese influence in the area, unwittingly helped lay ...
a reply in writing by the pope to a particular question of church discipline that has been referred to him. In modern usage, such a document is referred to as ...
Belgian pioneer in the education of children, including those with physical disabilities. Through his work as a physician, Decroly became involved in a school for disabled children and consequently became ...
in ancient Rome, the head of a group of 10. The title had two applications, one civil, the other military. In the first usage decurio was applied to a member ...
German mathematician who developed a major redefinition of irrational numbers in terms of arithmetic concepts. Although not fully recognized in his lifetime, his treatment of the ideas of the infinite ...
town (township), Norfolk county, eastern Massachusetts, U.S., on the Charles River, just southwest of Boston. One of the oldest inland settlements of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, it was founded in ...
in logic, a rigorous proof, or derivation, of one statement (the conclusion) from one or more statements (the premises)-i.e., a chain of statements, each of which is either a premise ...
town, central Malawi, at the foot of Dedza Mountain (7,211 feet [2,198 m]). Situated in an area with a cool, healthy climate and a perennial supply of mountain water, the ...
river in northern Wales and England, approximately 70 miles (110 km) long. It rises in the county of Gwynedd on the slopes of Dduallt, in Snowdonia National Park, and falls ...
