in classical Greek theatre, stage mechanism consisting of a low platform that rolled on wheels or revolved on an axis and could be pushed onstage to reveal an interior or ...
also spelled Egfrith Anglo-Saxon king of the Northumbrians from 670 who ultimately lost his wars against the Mercians on the south and the Picts on the north.
mathematician, statesman, and the leading Spanish dramatist of the last quarter of the 19th century. Along with the Provencal poet Frederic Mistral, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature ...
genus of about 100 species of succulent plants, in the stonecrop family (Crassulaceae), native from Texas to Argentina. Many are popularly called hen-and-chickens because of the way new plantlets, or ...
poet, fiction writer, cultural promoter, and political activist who played a significant role in the development of Argentine literature, not only through his own writings but also through his sponsoring ...
any of three species of peculiar egg-laying mammals from Australia, Tasmania, and New Guinea that eat and breathe through a bald, tubular beak protruding from a dome-shaped body covered in ...
(Greek: "Snake"), monster of Greek mythology, half-woman, half-serpent. Her parents were either the sea deities Phorcys and Ceto or Chrysaor, the monstrous son of Medusa, and Callirrhoe, the daughter of ...
formation of cysts, or hydatids, at the site of infestation by the larval form of Echinococcus granulosus, a tapeworm common in sheep, cattle, camels, dogs, and many other mammals. The ...
any of a variety of invertebrate marine animals belonging to the phylum Echinodermata, characterized by a hard, spiny covering or skin. Beginning with the Lower Cambrian Period almost 570,000,000 years ...
genus of cystoids, an extinct group related to the sea lily and starfish, found as fossils in Ordovician marine rocks (between 505 and 438 million years old). It is a ...
either of two experimental communications satellites launched into orbit around the Earth by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) during the 1960s. Consisting of aluminum-coated Mylar balloons that were ...
in Greek mythology, a mountain nymph, or oread. Ovid's Metamorphoses relates that Echo offended the goddess Hera by keeping her in conversation, thus preventing her from spying on one of ...
a type of verse in which repetition of the end of a line or stanza imitates an echo. The repetition usually constitutes the entire following line and changes the meaning ...
diagnostic technique that uses ultrasound (high-frequency sound waves) to produce an image of the internal structures of the heart. A piezoelectric transducer placed on the surface of the chest converts ...
method for detecting abnormalities within the cranial cavity, based on the reflection of high-frequency sound pulses delivered to the head through a probe held firmly to the scalp. The reflected ...
a physiological process for locating distant or invisible objects (such as prey) by means of sound waves reflected back to the emitter (such as a bat) by the objects. Echolocation ...
melody type associated with early Byzantine liturgical chant. The eight echoi (hence, the collective oktoechos) of the Byzantine system were probably derived from Syrian music, and the concept of echos ...
town, eastern Luxembourg. It lies along the Sure River, at the German border, northeast of Luxembourg city. A vacation resort for Trier (Treves) in Roman times, it developed around a ...
city, northern Victoria, Australia. The name Echuca is derived from an Aboriginal term meaning "meeting of the waters," from the city's location at the junction of the Murray and Campaspe ...
city, Seville provincia, in the comunidad autonoma ("autonomous community") of Andalusia, southwestern Spain. It lies along the Genil River east of Seville. The city contains the Gothic-style Church of Santiago ...
German writer, chiefly remembered as the assistant and close associate of the aging author J.W. von Goethe; his Gesprache mit Goethe in den letzten Jahren seines Lebens, 1823-32, 3 vol. ...
American engineer and coinventor of the first general-purpose electronic computer, a digital machine that was the prototype for most computers in use today.
Dominican theologian and writer who was the greatest German speculative mystic. In the transcripts of his sermons in German and Latin, he charts the course of union between the individual ...
American writer and ornithologist whose extensive personal knowledge of her native Maine informed her authoritative publications on the history, wildlife, cultures, and lore of the region.
(from Greek eklektikos, "selective"), in philosophy and theology, the practice of selecting doctrines from different systems of thought without adopting the whole parent system for each doctrine. It is distinct ...
pair of stars revolving about their common centre of mass in an orbit whose plane passes through or very near the Earth. An observer on the Earth thus sees one ...
in astronomy, the great circle that is the apparent path of the Sun among the constellations in the course of a year; from another viewpoint, the projection on the celestial ...
(from Greek ekloge, "selection"), compilation of Byzantine law issued in 726 by Emperor Leo III the Isaurian in his name and that of his son Constantine. It is the most ...
any member of a small group of igneous and metamorphic rocks whose composition is similar to that of basalt. Eclogites consist primarily of green pyroxene (omphacite) and red garnet (pyrope), ...
a short pastoral poem, usually in dialogue, on the subject of rural life and the society of shepherds, depicting rural life as free from the complexity and corruption of more ...
(French: "Polytechnic School"), engineering school located originally in Paris but, since 1976, in Palaiseau, Fr., and directed by the Ministry of Defense. It was established in 1794 by the National ...
the statistical and mathematical analysis of economic relationships, often serving as a basis for economic forecasting. Such information is sometimes used by governments to set economic policy and by private ...
international organization founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and world trade. Current members include Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, ...
African organization established by the Treaty of Lagos in May 1975 to promote economic trade, cooperation, and self-reliance. The organization seeks to harmonize agricultural policies and to facilitate the free ...
the process whereby simple, low-income national economies are transformed into modern industrial economies. Although the term is sometimes used as a synonym for economic growth, generally it is employed to ...
the prediction of any of the elements of economic activity. Such forecasts may be made in great detail or may be very general. In any case, they describe the expected ...
scientific discipline concerned with the distribution of mineral deposits, the economic considerations involved in their recovery, and an assessment of the reserves available.
the process by which a nation's wealth increases over time. Although the term is often used in discussions of short-term economic performance, in the context of economic theory it generally ...
statistic used, along with other indicators, in an attempt to determine the state of general economic activity, especially in the future. A "leading indicator" is one of a statistical series ...
the process by which key economic decisions are made or influenced by central governments. It contrasts with the laissez-faire approach that, in its purest form, eschews any attempt to guide ...
institutional arrangements designed to facilitate the free flow of goods and services and to coordinate foreign economic policies between countries in the same geographic region. Economic regionalism can be viewed ...
any of the institutions and practices in an economy that serve to reduce fluctuations in the business cycle through offsetting effects on the amounts of income available for spending (disposable ...
any of the institutions and practices in an economy that serve to reduce fluctuations in the business cycle through offsetting effects on the amounts of income available for spending (disposable ...
the way in which humankind has arranged for its material provisioning. One would think that there would be a great variety of such systems, corresponding to the many cultural arrangements ...
the use of, or the threat to use, economic means against a country in order to weaken its economy and thereby reduce its political and military power. Economic warfare also ...
social science that seeks to analyze and describe the production, distribution, and consumption of wealth. In the 19th century economics was the hobby of gentlemen of leisure and the vocation ...
weekly magazine of news and opinion published in London and generally regarded as one of the world's preeminent journals of its kind. It provides wide-ranging coverage of general news and ...
in economics, the relationship between the size of a plant or industry and the lowest possible cost of a product. When a factory increases output, a reduction in the average ...
city, Wayne county, Michigan, U.S. It lies along the Detroit River and is one of several contiguous southwest suburbs of Detroit known as downriver communities. Settled about 1815 on the ...
the sum of the Earth's ecological systems (ecosystems), all living organisms interacting with the physical environment. It is almost equivalent to the term biosphere (q.v.), with the further implication of ...
variety of contredanse that was popular in the late 18th and early 19th centuries in France and England. It was danced in quick 24 time by a double line of ...
destruction, or the threat of destruction, of the environment by states, groups, or individuals in order to intimidate or to coerce governments or civilians. The term also has been applied ...
a transition area of vegetation between two different plant communities, such as forest and grassland. It has some of the characteristics of each bordering community and often contains species not ...
nature reserve located in the departements of Hautes-Alpes and Isere, southeastern France. The park, which was created in 1973, occupies 226,694 acres (91,740 hectares) and is the second largest national ...
MDMA (3,4, Methylenedioxymethamphetamine), euphoria-inducing stimulant and hallucinogen. The use of Ecstasy, commonly known as "E," has been widespread despite the drug's having been banned worldwide in 1985 by its addition ...
in mysticism, the experience of an inner vision of God or of one's relation to or union with the divine. Various methods have been used to achieve ecstasy, which is ...
the outermost of the three germ layers, or masses of cells, which appears early in the development of an animal embryo. In vertebrates, ectoderm subsequently gives rise to hair, skin, ...
a human physical type (somatotype) tending toward linearity, as determined by the physique classification system developed by the American psychologist W.H. Sheldon. Although classification by the Sheldon system is not ...
condition in which the fertilized ovum (egg) has become imbedded outside the uterine cavity. The site of implantation is usually designated-e.g., tubal, abdominal, or ovarian ectopic pregnancy.
in occultism, a mysterious, usually light-coloured, viscous substance that is said to exude from the body of a spiritualist medium in trance and may then take the shape of a ...
sagging of the lower eyelid away from the eyeball. The condition sometimes is present in elderly persons as a result of relaxation of the lid's supporting structures. With the sagging ...
a notional unit of exchange, conceived in 1979, based on a "basket," or weighted combination, of the currencies of nations that belonged to the European Community. The principal currencies involved ...
country of northwestern South America. It straddles part of the Andes Mountains and occupies part of the Amazon basin. Lying on the Equator, from which its name derives, it borders ...
honorary primacy of the Eastern Orthodox autocephalous, or ecclesiastically independent, churches; it is also known as the "ecumenical patriarchate," or "Roman" patriarchate (Turkish: Rum patriarkhanesi).
