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Five Good Emperors ... Flavian, Saint

Five Good Emperors: the ancient Roman imperial succession of Nerva (reigned AD 96-98), Trajan (98-117), Hadrian (117-138), Antoninus Pius (138-161), and Marcus Aurelius (161-180), who presided over the most majestic days of the ...
Five Great Kings: in Tibetan Buddhism, a group of five deified heroes popularly worshiped as protection against enemies. Some accounts suggest they were five brothers who came to Tibet from northern Mongolia, and ...
five hundred: card game for two to six players, devised in 1904 by the United States Playing Card Company. Though later eclipsed by bridge, it still has a substantial American following and ...
Five Pecks of Rice: great Taoist-inspired popular movement that occurred near the end of China's Han dynasty (206 BC-AD 220) and greatly weakened the government. The Five Pecks of Rice movement became a prototype ...
Five, The: group of five Russian composers-Cesar Cui, Aleksandr Borodin, Mily Balakirev, Modest Mussorgsky, and Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov-who in the 1860s banded together in an attempt to create a truly national school of ...
Five-Power Constitution: system of government proposed by the Chinese revolutionary leader Sun Yat-sen in 1905 as the means through which democracy could be implemented in China after the overthrow of the imperial ...
fives: a ball game played by two or four players in a court enclosed on three or four sides, the hard ball being struck with the hand usually protected by a ...
Fizeau, Armand-Hippolyte-Louis: French physicist noted for his experimental determination of the speed of light.
fjord: long narrow arm of the sea, commonly extending far inland, that results from marine inundation of a glaciated valley. Many fjords are astonishingly deep; Sogn Fjord in Norway is 1,308 ...
Flacius Illyricus, Matthias: Serbo-Croatian Matija Vlacic Ilir Lutheran Reformer, pioneer in church historical studies, and theological controversialist who created a lasting rift within Lutheranism.
Flacourtiaceae: the Indian plum family, belonging to the violet order (Violales) and comprising about 85 genera of widely distributed tropical and subtropical trees and shrubs. Various species yield edible fruit or ...
flag: a piece of cloth, bunting, or similar material displaying the insignia of a community, an armed force, an office, or an individual. A flag is usually, but not always, oblong ...
flagbird: any of the six-plumed birds-of-paradise. See bird-of-paradise.
flagellate: (subphylum Mastigophora), any of a group of protozoans, mostly uninucleate organisms, that possess, at some time in the life cycle, one to many flagella for locomotion and sensation. (A flagellum ...
flagellation: in religion, the disciplinary or devotional practice of beating with whips. Many theories have been offered to explain the phenomenon. It has been interpreted as a driving out of evil ...
flagellum: hairlike structure that acts primarily as an organelle of locomotion in the cells of many living organisms. Flagella, characteristic of the protozoan group Mastigophora, also occur on the gametes of ...
flageolet: (from Old French flageol: "pipe," or "tabor pipe"), wind instrument closely related to the recorder. Like the recorder it is a fipple, or whistle, flute-i.e., one sounded by a stream ...
Flaget, Benedict Joseph: an influential figure in the development of the Roman Catholic church in the United States.
Flagg, James Montgomery: American illustrator, poster artist, and portrait painter known for his illustrations of buxom girls and particularly for his World War I recruiting poster of a pointing Uncle Sam with the ...
Flagler, Henry M: U.S. financier and partner of John D. Rockefeller, Sr., in establishing the Standard Oil Company; he pioneered in the development of Florida as a U.S. vacation centre.
Flagstad, Kirsten: greatest Wagnerian soprano of the mid-20th century.
Flagstaff: city, seat (1891) of Coconino county, north-central Arizona, U.S. The San Francisco Peaks are immediately north of the city, which is encircled by the Coconino National Forest. Lumberjacks celebrating the ...
Flahaut de la Billarderie, Auguste, comte de: (count of) French army officer and diplomat, better remembered for his exploits in love affairs than for his public service.
Flaherty, Robert: U.S. explorer and filmmaker, called the father of the documentary film.
Flaiano, Ennio: Italian screenwriter, playwright, novelist, journalist, and drama critic who was especially noted for his social satires. He became a leading figure of the Italian motion-picture industry after World War II, ...
flail: ancient hand tool for threshing grain. It consists of two pieces of wood: the handstaff, or helve, and the beater, joined by a thong. The handstaff is a light rod ...
flake tool: Stone Age hand tools, usually flint, shaped by flaking off small particles, or by breaking off a large flake which was then used as the tool.
Flambard, Ranulf: chief minister of King William II Rufus of England (ruled 1087-1100). Of Norman origin, Ranulf was made keeper of the seal for King William I the Conqueror about 1083, and ...
Flamborough Head: chalk promontory, East Riding of Yorkshire geographic county, historic county of Yorkshire, England, where the Yorkshire Wolds project 4 miles (6 km) into the North Sea. The northern cliffs, 400 ...
flame: rapidly reacting body of gas, commonly a mixture of air and a combustible gas, that gives off heat and, usually, light and is self-propagating. Flame propagation is explained by two ...
flame thrower: military assault weapon that projects a stream of blazing oil or thickened gasoline against enemy positions. As used in World War II and later wars it consisted basically of one ...
flamen: in ancient Rome, a priest devoted exclusively to the worship of one deity; the name derives from a root meaning "he who burns offerings." Of the 15 flamines, the most ...
flamenco: form of song, dance, and instrumental (mostly guitar) music commonly associated with the Andalusian Gypsies of southern Spain. (There, the Roma [Gypsy] people and their language are known as Calo, ...
flamingo: any of five species of tall, pink, wading birds with thick downturned bills. Flamingos have slender legs, long, graceful necks, large wings, and short tails. They range from about 90 ...
Flamingos, the: American doo-wop vocal group of the 1950s noted for their tight, pristine harmonies. The principal members were Zeke Carey (b. January 24, 1933, Bluefield, Virginia, U.S., ), Jake Carey (b. ...
Flamininus, Titus Quinctius: Roman general and statesman who established Roman hegemony over Greece.
Flaminius, Gaius: Roman political leader who repeatedly challenged the authority of the Senate. A plebeian, he held the tribunate in 232. Despite the opposition of the Senate and (according to legend) of ...
Flamsteed, John: founder of the Greenwich Observatory, and the first astronomer royal of England.
Flanagan, John J.: Irish-American athlete, the first Olympic hammer throw champion, who won three Olympic gold medals and set 14 world records.
Flanders: region that comprises the northern half of Belgium. Flanders was created in 1995 in the reorganization of Belgium's provincial administration along ethnic-linguistic lines. It includes the Flemish-speaking provinces of Antwerp, ...
Flanders: medieval principality in the southwest of the Low Countries, now included in the French departement of Nord (q.v.), the Belgian provinces of East Flanders and West Flanders (qq.v.), and the ...
Flandin, Pierre-Etienne: lawyer, politician, and several times a minister during the final years of France's Third Republic.
Flannagan, John Bernard: American sculptor notable for his technique of direct carving and for his sculptures of animals, birds, fish, and birth themes.
flannel: fabric made in plain or twill weave, usually with carded yarns. It is napped, most often on both sides, the degree of napping ranging from slight to so heavy that ...
flannelbush: (Fremontodendron californicum), shrub of the cacao, or chocolate, family (Sterculiaceae) of the order Malvales, native to southwestern North America. The lower leaf surfaces have a felty texture. The shrub grows ...
Flanner, Janet: American writer who was the Paris correspondent for The New Yorker magazine for nearly half a century.
flap: in phonetics, a consonant sound produced by a single quick flip of the tongue against the upper part of the mouth, often heard as a short r in Spanish (e.g., ...
flare: combustible device used to emit a dazzlingly bright light for signaling or illumination on railroads and highways and in military operations. In pyrotechnics the term is applied either to a ...
flare star: any star that varies in brightness, sometimes by more than one magnitude, within a few minutes. The cause is thought to be the eruption of flares much larger than, but ...
flash lamp: any of several devices that produce brief, intense emissions of light useful in photography and in the observation of objects in rapid motion.
flash point: the lowest temperature at which a petroleum product will burn. Below this temperature insufficient petroleum vapour is available to support combustion. Before gasoline became important, kerosene was the main petroleum ...
flash spectrum: array of wavelengths detectable in the emissions from the limb of the Sun during the flash periods of a few seconds just after the beginning of totality during a solar ...
flashback: in motion pictures and literature, narrative technique of interrupting the chronological sequence of events to interject events of earlier occurrence. The earlier events often take the form of reminiscence. The ...
flashbulb: one-time light bulb giving a single bright burst of light, used in photography. See flash lamp.
flashtube: electric discharge lamp giving a very bright, very brief burst of light, useful in photography and engineering. See flash lamp.
flat and round characters: characters as described by the course of their development in a work of literature. Flat characters are two-dimensional in that they are relatively uncomplicated and do not change throughout the ...
flat bark beetle: any member of the approximately 500 species belonging to the insect family Cucujidae (order Coleoptera). These beetles, easily recognized by their narrow, flattened bodies, occur throughout the world and are ...
flat bug: any small, flat, dark-coloured insect of the family Aradidae (order Heteroptera), which numbers about 1,000 species. Members occur in all zoogeographic regions.
flat grain beetle: any member of the insect family Silvanidae (order Coleoptera), closely related to and sometimes included in the flat bark beetle (q.v.) family Cucujidae. These beetles are usually less than 3 ...
flat-headed cat: (Felis planiceps), extremely rare Asian cat found in the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, and Borneo. One of the smallest members of the cat family, Felidae, the adult is from 40 to ...
flatbed press: printing press employing a flat surface for the type or plates against which paper is pressed, either by another flat surface acting reciprocally against it or by a cylinder rolling ...
flatbill: any of six species of Central and South American birds belonging to the tyrant flycatcher family Tyrannidae (order Passeriformes). Flatbills, which constitute the genera Rhynchocyclus and Ramphotrigon, are distinguished by ...
flatfish: order name Pleuronectiformes, any of about 600 species of bony, oval-shaped, flattened fishes, such as the flounder, halibut, and turbot.
flatfoot: congenital or acquired flatness of the longitudinal arch of the foot. Usually associated with loss of the arch is a rolling outward of the foot and heel, resulting in a ...
Flathead: Salish-speaking Indian tribe of what is now western Montana, U.S., whose territory extended from the crest of the Bitterroot Range to the Continental Divide of the Rockies and centred on ...
flathead: any of the flattened marine fish of the family Platycephalidae (order Scorpaeniformes), found in the Indo-Pacific and in tropical regions of the eastern Atlantic. Flatheads are elongated, large-mouthed fish with ...
Flathead Lake: lake in the Flathead National Forest of northwestern Montana, U.S. Flathead Lake marks the southern limit of the Rocky Mountain Trench, a structural depression extending northward to the Liard Plain ...
Flathead River: river rising in the MacDonald Range in southeastern British Columbia, Can., and flowing south for 240 miles (385 km) across the Canada-United States boundary into Montana. After passing between the ...
flatulence: the presence of excessive amounts of gas in the stomach or intestine, which sometimes results in the expulsion of the gas through the anus. Healthy individuals produce significant amounts of ...
flatware: spoons, forks, and serving implements used at the table. The term flatware was introduced toward the end of the 19th century. Strictly speaking, it excludes knives, which are classified as ...
flatworm: any of the phylum Platyhelminthes, a group of soft-bodied, usually much flattened invertebrates. The flatworms are free-living as well as parasitic-i.e., living on or in another organism and securing nourishment ...
Flaubert, Gustave: novelist regarded as the prime mover of the realist school of French literature and best known for his masterpiece, Madame Bovary (1857), a realistic portrayal of bourgeois life, which led ...
Flavian Dynasty: (AD 69-96), the ancient Roman imperial dynasty of Vespasian (reigned 69-79) and his sons Titus (79-81) and Domitian (81-96); they belonged to the Flavia gens.
Flavian I Of Antioch: bishop of Antioch from 381 to 404, whose election perpetuated the schism originated by Meletius of Antioch (q.v.), a crucial division in the Eastern Church over the nature of the ...
Flavian II Of Antioch: patriarch of Antioch probably from 498 to 512. He was chosen patriarch by the emperor Anastasius I after he accepted the evasive Henoticon, the decree of union between the Monophysites ...
Flavian, Saint: patriarch of Constantinople from 446 to 449, who opposed the heretical doctrine of the Monophysites (q.v.). He presided at the Synod of Constantinople (448), which condemned the monk Eutyches (q.v.), ...