leader of the Dzungar tribes of Mongols (reigned 1676-97). He conquered an empire that included Tibet in the southwest and ranged across Central Asia to the borders of Russia on ...
the secret intelligence agency of Cuba. The agency was established with the help of the Soviet KGB in 1961, following Fidel Castro's rise to power. The DGI provided Castro with ...
("External Documentation and Counterespionage Service"), secret intelligence and counterintelligence service that operates under the defense ministry of the French government. This agency was established in 1947 to combine under one ...
town, northeastern Saudi Arabia. It is located in the Dammam oil field, just south of the Persian Gulf port of Al-Dammam and near the site of the original discovery of ...
city and capital of Bangladesh, located just north of the Burhi Ganga River, a channel of the Dhaleshwari, in the south-central part of the country. Its name is said to ...
town, western Yemen, lying in the Yemen Highlands, in a valley 12 miles (19 km) wide between two volcanic peaks at 8,000 feet (2,400 m) above sea level. Although local ...
probably the best-known book in the Pali Buddhist canon. It is an anthology of basic Buddhist teachings (primarily ethical teachings) in a simple aphoristic style. As the second text in ...
town, eastern Chhattisgarh state, central India, just west of the Mahanadi River. The town is a rail-spur terminus and trade centre for agricultural and forest products. Rice and flour milling ...
city, eastern Jharkhand state, northeastern India. It lies in the Damodar River valley near the Jharia coalfield and is an important agricultural-trade centre. The Indian School of Mines, affiliated with ...
in Hindu mythology, the physician of the gods. According to legend, the gods and the demons sought the elixir amrta by churning the milky ocean, and Dhanvantari rose out of ...
town, western Madhya Pradesh state, central India. The town, a major agricultural centre, is connected by road with Indore. Cotton ginning and handicraft weaving are the chief industries. On the ...
in the Yoga system of Indian philosophy, the sixth of the eight stages intended to lead the aspirant to samadhi ("self-collectedness"), the state of perfect concentration. In dharana, the mind ...
in Buddhism and Hinduism, a sacred Sanskrit phrase of great efficacy, used as a verbal protective device or talisman and as a support or instrument for concentration. The
folk deity of eastern India having complex characteristics and obscure origins. Dharma-Thakur is worshiped as the "high god" of a large number of villages of the Rahr Plains, a region ...
Indian Buddhist philosopher and logician. He asserted that inference and direct perception are the only valid kinds of knowledge and that, in the processes of the mind, cognition and the ...
in Tibetan Buddhism, any one of a group of eight divinities who, though benevolent, are represented as hideous and ferocious in order to instill terror in evil spirits.
town, northwestern Tamil Nadu state, southeastern India. It was known in early Tamil cankam literature as the home of the poet Avvaiyar (2nd century AD). It is now an agricultural ...
("righteousness science"), ancient Indian body of jurisprudence that is still fundamentally the family law of Hindus living in territories outside India (e.g., Pakistan, Malaysia, East Africa) and is in force, ...
("righteousness thread"), any of several manuals of human conduct that form the earliest source of Hindu law. They consist chiefly of strings (or "threads") of terse rules containing the essentials ...
city, western Himachal Pradesh state, northwestern India, located on a lower slope of the Himalayas. Dharmshala is a scenic health resort. Aerated water is bottled there, and slate is quarried ...
mountain massif of the Himalayas in north-central Nepal, on the western side of the deep Kali Gandak River gorge. Many of its snow- and glacier-covered peaks exceed 25,000 feet (7,620 ...
large reservoir lake, in the southeastern Aravalli Range, south-central Rajasthan state, northwestern India. The lake, approximately 20 square miles (50 square km) in area when full, was originally named Jai ...
British military enclave in southeast Cyprus, retained as a "sovereignty base area" by the United Kingdom under the 1959 London Agreement granting independence to Cyprus. It is located northeast of ...
town, east-central Orissa state, eastern India. Named for Dhenka, a medieval chieftain of the Savara (Saora, or Sora) tribe, Dhenkanal is a marketplace for rice, oilseeds, and timber and is ...
(Arabic: "reminding oneself," or "mention"), ritual prayer or litany practiced by Muslim mystics (Sufis) for the purpose of glorifying God and achieving spiritual perfection. Based on the Qur'anic injunctions "Remind ...
Dhiliyiannis also spelled Deligiannis, or Diliyiannis politician who was prime minister of Greece five times (1885-86, 1890-92, 1895-97, 1902-03, 1904-05). He was a resolute advocate of aggressive and often irresponsible ...
historical region in southern Oman, extending from Cape Ash-Sharbatat on the coast of the Arabian Sea southwestward to the Oman-Yemen border. The region's northern boundary has never been defined, but ...
wild Asian carnivore of the dog family (Canidae), found in central and southeastern wooded areas and distinguished structurally by the lack of one pair of lower molars. Its length ranges ...
town, eastern Rajasthan state, northwestern India, situated just north of the Chambal River. The original town was founded by Raja Dholan Deo in the 11th century, when it was called ...
long loincloth traditionally worn in southern Asia by Hindu men. Wrapped around the hips and thighs with one end brought between the legs and tucked into the waistband, the dhoti ...
one- or two-masted Arab sailing vessel, usually with lateen rigging (slanting, triangular sails), common in the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. On the larger types, called baggalas and booms, ...
in Hindustani music, ancient vocal musical form in four parts preceded by extensive introductory improvisation (alapa) and expanded by rhythmic and melodic elaborations. It is related to the shorter, later ...
in Islamic mythology, the two-pointed magical sword that has come to represent 'Ali, fourth caliph and son-in-law of Muhammad. Originally owned by an unbeliever, al-'As ibn Munabbih, Dhu al-faqar came ...
11th-century Muslim Berber dynasty of Toledo that ruled central Spain from Guadalajara and Talavera to Murcia during the unruly period of the party kingdoms (ta'ifahs). As early as the mid-8th ...
town, western Assam state, northeastern India. Situated on the Brahmaputra River just east of the Bangladesh border, it is a trade centre for rice, jute, fish, and other products. A ...
town, northwestern Maharashtra state, western India, on major road and rail routes. In early Muslim times it belonged to the Faruquis, but later, in 1601, it became part of the ...
in Mahayana and Vajrayana (Tantric) Buddhism, any of a group of five "self-born" Buddhas who have always existed from the beginning of time; the five are usually identified as Vairocana, ...
Italian Nordic skier who was the only athlete to win five Olympic medals in cross-country skiing at a single Winter Games (1994). A dominant force on the international level, she ...
football (soccer) player and manager, regarded as one of the greatest centre forwards in football history. His reputation is based largely on his performance for the Spanish club Real Madrid ...
fine- to medium-grained, dark gray to black intrusive igneous rock. It is extremely hard and tough and is commonly quarried for crushed stone, under the name of trap. Although not ...
Austrian music publisher and composer best known for his waltz, or landler, on which Ludwig van Beethoven wrote his 33 variations for piano (Diabelli Variations, Opus 120).
pathological endocrine condition characterized by extreme thirst and excessive production of very dilute urine. The essential feature of the disorder appears to be a lack of antidiuretic hormone (vasopressin) or ...
a disorder of carbohydrate metabolism characterized by the impaired ability of the body to produce or respond to insulin and thereby maintain proper levels of sugar (glucose) in the blood.
a representation in words or pictures of black magic or of dealings with the devil. Among the literary works that contain such representations are Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" and ...
segment of the Pacific Coast Ranges (see Pacific mountain system) in west-central California, U.S. It extends southeastward for about 180 miles (290 km) from the solitary 3,849-foot (1,173-metre) Mount Diablo ...
extinct genus of amphibians found as fossils in Lower Permian rocks in North America, dating from the Early Permian Period (286 to 258 million years ago). Diadectes had both reptilelike ...
theologian, mystic, and bishop of Photice, Epirus, who was a staunch defender of orthodox Christological doctrine. His treatises on the ascetic life have influenced Eastern Orthodox and Western spirituality.
(from Greek diairein, "to divide"), the resolution of one syllable into two, especially by separating the vowel elements of a diphthong and, by extension, two adjacent vowels, as in the ...
sum of all processes, chiefly chemical, by which changes in a sediment are brought about after its deposition but before its final lithification (conversion to rock). Because most sediments contain ...
Russian promoter of the arts who revitalized ballet by integrating the ideals of other art forms-music, painting, and drama-with those of the dance. From 1906 he lived in Paris, where, ...
the process of determining the nature of a disease or disorder and distinguishing it from other possible conditions. The term comes from the Greek gnosis, meaning knowledge.
the use of electromagnetic radiation to produce images of internal structures of the human body for the purpose of accurate diagnosis. Diagnostic imaging is roughly equivalent to radiology (q.v.), the ...
Indian peoples of South America, formerly inhabiting northwestern Argentina and the Chilean provinces of Atacama and Coquimbo. The Calchaqui, a northwestern Argentine subgroup of the Diaguita, are the best-documented. Their ...
a variety of a language. The word comes from the Ancient Greek dialektos "discourse, language, dialect," which is derived from dialegesthai "to discourse, talk." ...
originally a form of logical argumentation but now a philosophical concept of evolution applied to diverse fields including thought, nature, and history.
a philosophical approach to reality derived from the teachings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. For Marx and Engels, materialism meant that the material world, perceptible to the senses, has ...
the study of dialects. Variation most commonly occurs as a result of relative geographic or social isolation and may affect vocabulary or features of grammar or pronunciation or both. Dialectology ...
either of the two pyroxenes augite and diopside, which have well-developed, close-spaced, parallel partings commonly filled with magnetite or ilmenite. These filled partings are generally more pronounced than cleavage planes. ...
in its widest sense, the recorded conversation of two or more persons, especially as an element of drama or fiction. As a literary form, it is a carefully organized exposition, ...
in chemistry, separation of suspended colloidal particles from dissolved ions or molecules of small dimensions (crystalloids) by means of their unequal rates of diffusion through the pores of semipermeable membranes. ...
in medicine, the process of removing blood from a patient whose kidney functioning is faulty, purifying that blood by dialysis, and returning it to the patient's bloodstream. The artificial kidney, ...
kind of magnetism characteristic of materials that line up at right angles to a nonuniform magnetic field and that partly expel from their interior the magnetic field in which they ...
city, central Minas Gerais estado (state), southeastern Brazil. It lies in the mineral-laden Espinhaco Mountains at 4,140 feet (1,262 metres) above sea level. Formerly called Tejuco, the ...
intermittent river, east-central Australia, in the pastoral Channel Country (q.v.). It rises in Kirbys Nob, east of Selwyn, Queen., and flows (seasonally) for 500 miles (800 km) southwest past Birdsville ...
a mineral composed of pure carbon. It is the hardest naturally occurring substance known; it is also the most popular gemstone. Because of their extreme ...
city, southeastern West Bengal state, northeastern India, on both sides of Hajipur Creek, a tributary of the Hooghly River. It is an agricultural trade centre; rice milling is the chief ...
cape and celebrated landmark, Honolulu county, southeastern Oahu island, Hawaii, U.S. It lies at the southern edge of Waikiki. An extinct volcanic crater and tuff cone, Diamond Head was the ...
("Diamond Cutter Sutra"), brief and very popular Mahayana Buddhist text, widely used in East Asia, and perhaps the best known of the 18 smaller "Wisdom" texts, which together with their ...
