British-born American film actor whose good looks, debonair style, and flair for romantic comedy made him one of Hollywood's most popular and enduring stars.
innovative British Post-Impressionist painter and designer. He was one of the first English artists to assimilate the influence of Paul Cezanne and the Fauves.
American first lady (1869-77), the wife of Ulysses S. Grant, 18th president of the United States and commander of the Union armies during the last years of the American Civil ...
U.S. general, commander of the Union armies during the late years (1864-65) of the American Civil War, and 18th president of the United States (1869-77). (For a discussion of the ...
19th-century American educator who, through her teaching and administrative efforts, was instrumental in promoting advanced educational opportunities for women.
writing system of southern India developed in the 5th century AD and still in use. The earliest inscriptions in Grantha, dating from the 5th-6th century AD, are on copper plates ...
town, South Kesteven district, administrative and historic county of Lincolnshire, England, on the River Witham. The town is an important junction on the railway line from London to Scotland. Its ...
city, seat (1981) of Cibola county, west-central New Mexico, U.S., on the San Jose River. The site of a skirmish between Navajo and Comanche Indians in the early 19th century, ...
city, seat (1886) of Josephine county, southwestern Oregon, U.S., on the Rogue River, in the Klamath Mountains, 25 miles (40 km) northwest of Medford. A stage stop on the Sacramento-Portland ...
in jewelry, type of decoration in which minute grains or tiny balls of gold are applied to a surface in geometric or linear patterns or massed to fill in parts ...
one of the major divisions of the mineral facies classification of metamorphic rocks, the rocks of which formed under the most intense temperature-pressure conditions usually found in regional metamorphism. At ...
mildly contagious venereal disease occurring predominantly in tropical areas and more frequently affecting dark-skinned people, characterized by deep, purulent ulcers on or near the genital organs. Encapsulated bacilli called Donovan ...
inflammatory disease of the thyroid gland, of unknown but presumably viral origin. It may persist from several weeks to a few months but subsides spontaneously.
seaside resort and harbour town, Manche departement, Basse-Normandie region, western France. It is located south of Cherbourg and west of Paris. The old walled upper town stands on a promontory ...
English statesman, a vigorous opponent of Robert Walpole (who was chief minister from 1721 to 1742). A leading minister from 1742 to 1744, Carteret directed England's involvement against France in ...
English dramatist, producer, and critic whose naturalistic stagings in an era of theatrical artificiality profoundly influenced the 20th-century theatre.
any member of the grape genus, Vitis (family Vitaceae), with about 60 species native to the north temperate zone, including varieties that may be eaten as table fruit, dried to ...
(Phylloxera vitifoliae), a small greenish-yellow insect (order Homoptera), highly destructive to grape plants in Europe and the western United States. Their sucking of fluid from grapevines results in formation of ...
any plant of the genus Muscari of the family Liliaceae, consisting of about 50 species of small bulbous perennials native to the Mediterranean region. Most species of the genus have ...
(Citrus paradisi), citrus tree of the Rutaceae family and its edible fruit. The grapefruit tree grows to be as large and vigorous as an orange tree; a mature tree may ...
cannon charge consisting of small round balls, usually of lead or iron, and used primarily as an antipersonnel weapon. Typically, the small iron balls were held in clusters of three ...
pictorial representation of statistical data or of a functional relationship between variables. Graphs have the advantage of showing general tendencies in the quantitative behaviour of data, and therefore serve a ...
the art and profession of selecting and arranging visual elements-such as typography, images, symbols, and colours-to convey a message to an audience. Sometimes graphic design is called "visual communications," a ...
a computer program that enables a person to communicate with a computer through the use of symbols, visual metaphors, and pointing devices. Best known for its implementation in Apple Computer, ...
mineral consisting of carbon. Graphite has a layered structure that consists of rings of six carbon atoms arranged in widely spaced horizontal sheets. Graphite thus crystallizes in the hexagonal system, ...
inference of character from a person's handwriting. The theory underlying graphology is that handwriting is an expression of personality; hence, a systematic analysis of the way words and letters are ...
any member of an extinct group of small, aquatic colonial animals that first became apparent during the Cambrian Period (540 to 505 million years ago) and that persisted into the ...
village, South Lakeland district, administrative county of Cumbria, historic county of Westmorland, England, surrounded by craggy mountains. The village lies near the head of Lake Grasmere on the main north-south ...
any of many low, green, nonwoody plants belonging to the grass family (Poaceae or Gramineae), sedge family (Cyperaceae), and rush family (Juncaceae). There are many grasslike members of other flowering ...
any of several small finchlike birds of Australasia that constitute the tribe Erythrurini of the songbird family Estrildidae. Their tails are long and pointed, their bills stoutly conical. Grass finches ...
(Parnassia), any of about 15 species of low perennial herbs, in the family Parnassiaceae, distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere. The plants grow in tufts and bear white, greenish white, or ...
any plant of the genus Xanthorrhoea of the family Xanthorrhoeaceae, with about 17 species native to eastern Australia. They have thick, woody, often palmlike stems about 5 m (16 feet) ...
German poet, novelist, playwright, sculptor, and printmaker who, with his extraordinary first novel Die Blechtrommel (1959; The Tin Drum), became the literary spokesman for ...
town, southeastern France, Alpes-Maritimes departement, Provence-Alpes-Cote-d'Azur region, northwest of Cannes, west-southwest of Nice. Situated at an elevation of 1,100-1,250 feet (330-380 m) on a slope in a natural amphitheatre in ...
any leaping insect of the orthopteran families Acrididae and Tettigoniidae. Though found in a variety of habitats, the grasshopper occurs in greatest numbers in lowland tropical forests, semiarid regions, and ...
any of three species of terrestrial, nocturnal, insectivorous and carnivorous mice that are physiologically adapted to semiarid and arid habitats in the open country of western North America. The northern ...
area in which the vegetation is dominated by a nearly continuous cover of grasses. Grasslands occur in environments conducive to the growth of this plant cover but not to that ...
German mathematician chiefly remembered for his development of a general calculus of vectors in Die lineale Ausdehnungslehre, ein neuer Zweig der Mathematik (1844; "The Theory of Linear Extension, a New ...
in folktales of many cultures, the spirit of a deceased person who bestows benefits on the one responsible for his burial. In the prototypical story, the protagonist is a traveler ...
American rock band that was the incarnation of the improvisational, psychedelic music that flowered in and around . The Grateful Dead was one of the most successful touring bands in ...
Roman emperor from 367 to 383. During part of his reign he shared this office with his father, Valentinian I (reigned 364-375), and his uncle Valens (reigned 364-378). By proclaiming ...
Italian monk who was the father of the study of canon law. His writing and teaching initiated canon law as a new branch of learning distinct from theology.
collection of nearly 3,800 texts touching on all areas of church discipline and regulation compiled by the Benedictine monk Gratian about 1140. It soon became the basic text on which ...
leader of the movement that forced Great Britain to grant legislative independence to Ireland in 1782. Later he headed opposition to the union (1800) of England and Ireland.
largest and most easterly canton of Switzerland; it has an area of 2,744 sq mi (7,106 sq km), of which two-thirds is classed as productive (forests covering one-fifth of the ...
English statistician, generally considered to be the founder of the science of demography, the statistical study of human populations. His analysis of the vital statistics of the London populace influenced ...
aggregate of more or less rounded rock fragments coarser than sand (i.e., more than 2 mm [0.08 inch] in diameter). Gravel beds in some places contain accumulations of heavy metallic ...
seaport town of northern France, in the departement of Nord and the arrondissement of Dunkirk. It is situated midway between Dunkirk and Calais, near the mouth of the Aa River. ...
endocrine disorder that is the most common type of hyperthyroidism, or thyrotoxicosis (oversecretion of thyroid hormone). In Graves' disease the excessive secretion of thyroid hormone is usually accompanied by diffuse ...
American painter best known for introspective works that present a mystical view of nature. His style was greatly influenced by the three trips he made to East Asia between 1928 ...
English poet, novelist, critic, and classical scholar who carried on many of the formal traditions of English verse in a period of experimentation. His more than 120 books also include ...
Irish physician and a leader of the Irish, or Dublin, school of diagnosis, which emphasized the clinical observation of patients and which significantly advanced the fields of physical diagnosis and ...
borough (district), administrative and historic county of Kent, southeastern England. Its centre is the town of Gravesend, but it includes a section of the south bank of the River Thames ...
genre of 18th-century British poetry that focused on death and bereavement. The graveyard school consisted largely of imitations of Robert Blair's popular long poem of morbid appeal, The Grave (1743), ...
sensitive device for measuring variations in the Earth's gravitational field, useful in prospecting for oil and minerals. In one form, it consists of a weight suspended from a spring; variations ...
a method of quantitative chemical analysis in which the constituent sought is converted into a substance (of known composition) that can be separated from the sample and weighed. The steps ...
walled town, Bari provincia, Puglia (Apulia) regione, southern Italy. The town's cathedral and the castle of the Orsini family are notable local monuments, and ...
in mechanics, the universal force of attraction acting between all matter. It is by far the weakest known force in nature and thus plays no role in determining the internal ...
the radius below which the gravitational attraction between the particles of a body must cause it to undergo irreversible gravitational collapse. This phenomenon is thought to be the final fate ...
postulated quantum that is thought to be the carrier of the gravitational field. It is analogous to the well-established photon of the electromagnetic field. Gravitons, like photons, would be massless, ...
in physics, imaginary point in a body of matter where, for convenience in certain calculations, the total weight of the body may be thought to be concentrated. The concept is ...
