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insight: in learning theory, immediate and clear learning or understanding that takes place without overt trial-and-error testing. Insight occurs in human learning when people recognize relationships (or make novel associations between ...
insolvency: financial condition in which the total liabilities of an individual or enterprise exceed the total assets so that the claims of creditors cannot be paid. There are essentially two approaches ...
insomnia: the inability to sleep adequately. Causes may include poor sleeping conditions, circulatory or brain disorders, a respiratory disorder known as apnea, stress, or other physical or mental disorders. Insomnia is ...
installment credit: in business, credit that is granted on condition of its repayment at regular intervals, or installments, over a specified period of time until paid in full. Installment credit is the ...
instinct: involuntary response by an animal to an external stimulus. The concept has come to refer to complex unlearned behaviour that is recognizable and predictable in at least one sex of ...
Institut Canadien: literary and scientific society that came into conflict with the Roman Catholic church in 19th-century French Canada. Founded in Montreal on Dec. 17, 1844, it soon became a forum for ...
Institut Geographique National: one of the foremost centres of mapmaking and geographic research in France, specializing in aerial and ground surveys and maps; it is located in Paris. Its origins can be traced ...
Institutes of the Christian Religion: John Calvin's masterpiece, a summary of biblical theology that became the normative statement of the Reformed faith. It was first published in 1536 and was revised and enlarged by Calvin ...
institutional economics: school of economics that flourished in the United States during the 1920s and '30s. It viewed the evolution of economic institutions as part of the broader process of cultural development.
Institutional Revolutionary Party: Mexican political party that dominated the country's political institutions from its founding in 1929 until the end of the 20th century. Virtually all important figures in Mexican national and local ...
instrument landing system: electronic guidance system designed to help airline pilots align their planes with the centre of a landing strip during final approach under conditions of poor visibility. The ground equipment of ...
instrumentalism: a philosophy advanced by the American philosopher John Dewey holding that what is most important in a thing or idea is its value as an instrument of action and that ...
instrumentals: type of popular music performed without a vocalist, in any of several genres but especially prevalent in rock and roll in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Serving primarily as ...
instrumentation: in music, arrangement or composition for instruments. Most authorities make little distinction between the words instrumentation and orchestration. Both deal with musical instruments and their capabilities of producing various timbres ...
instrumentation: in technology, the development and use of precise measuring equipment. Although the sensory organs of the human body can be extremely sensitive and responsive, modern science and technology rely on ...
Insubres: the most powerful Celtic people of Gallia Cisalpina (Cisalpine Gaul), in northern Italy. Despite their defeat at Clastidium (modern Casteggio) by Roman forces in 222 BC, they continued to be ...
insula: (Latin: "island"), in architecture, block of grouped but separate buildings or a single structure in ancient Rome and Ostia. The insulae were largely tenements providing economically practical housing where land ...
Insular script: in calligraphy, any of several hands that developed in the British Isles after the Roman occupation of England and before the Norman Conquest. The foremost achievement of the combined Irish ...
insulator: any of various substances that block or retard the flow of electrical or thermal currents.
insulin: hormone that regulates the level of sugar (glucose) in the blood and is produced by the beta cells of the islets of Langerhans in the pancreas. Insulin is secreted when ...
Insull, Samuel: British-born American public utilities magnate whose vast Midwest holding company empire collapsed in the 1930s.
insurance: a system under which the insurer, for a consideration usually agreed upon in advance, promises to reimburse the insured or to render services to the insured in the event that ...
intaglio: in sculpture, work in which the design is incised into the block, all lines appearing below the surface; it is thus the opposite of relief sculpture and is sometimes called ...
intaglio: in visual arts, one of the four major classes of printmaking techniques, distinguished from the other three methods (relief printing, stenciling, and lithography) by the fact that the ink forming ...
Intef II: third king of the 11th dynasty (2081-1939 BC) in Egypt, who, during his long reign, successfully warred against the allies of the Heracleopolitans-rulers of Middle and Lower (northern) Egypt composing ...
integral: in mathematics, either a numerical value equal to the area under the graph of a function for some interval (definite integral) or a new function the derivative of which is ...
integral equation: in mathematics, equation in which the unknown function to be found lies within an integral sign. An example of an integral equation is
integral transform: mathematical operator that produces a new function f(y) by integrating the product of an existing function F(x) and a so-called kernel function K(x, y) between suitable limits. The process, which ...
integraph: mathematical instrument for plotting the integral of a graphically defined function. Two such instruments were invented independently about 1880 by the British physicist Sir Charles Vernon Boys and the Lithuanian ...
integrated circuit: an assembly of electronic components, fabricated as a single unit, in which miniaturized active devices (e.g., transistors and diodes) and passive devices (e.g., capacitors and resistors) and their interconnections are ...
integration: in mathematics, technique of finding a function g(x) the derivative of which, Dg(x), is equal to a given function f(x). This is indicated by the integral sign "∫," as in ...
integrator: instrument for performing the mathematical operation of integration, important for the solution of differential and integral equations and the generation of many mathematical functions.
integument: in biology, network of features that forms the covering of an organism. The integument delimits the body of the organism, separating it from the environment and protecting it from foreign ...
Intel Corporation: American manufacturer of semiconductor computer circuits. Besides microprocessors, the company makes microcontrollers (single-chip computers), memory chips, computer modules and boards, network and conferencing products, and parallel supercomputers. Its headquarters are ...
intellectual-property law: the legal regulations governing an individual's or an organization's right to control the use or dissemination of ideas or information. Various systems of legal rules exist that empower persons and ...
intelligence: in military science, information concerning an enemy or an area. The term is also used for an agency that gathers such information.
intelligence: in government and military operations, evaluated information concerning the strength, activities, and probable courses of action of foreign countries or nonstate actors that are usually, though not always, enemies or ...
intelligence: ability to adapt effectively to the environment, either by making a change in oneself or by changing the environment or finding a new one.
intelligence test: series of tasks designed to measure the capacity to make abstractions, to learn, and to deal with novel situations.
intelligent design: argument intended to demonstrate that living organisms were created in more or less their present forms by an "intelligent designer."
Intelsat: organization founded in 1964 by the telecommunication agencies of 18 nations, including the United States, which proposed the organization. Intelsat owns communications satellites and the ground stations from which they ...
intendant: administrative official under the ancien regime in France who served as an agent of the king in each of the provinces, or generalites. From about 1640 until 1789, the intendancies ...
intendente: royal official appointed by the 18th-century kings of the Bourbon dynasty in Spain. Modeled after the French intendants, the intendentes were to serve as instruments of royal centralization and administrative ...
intension and extension: in logic, correlative words that indicate the reference of a term or concept: "intension" indicates the internal content of a term or concept that constitutes its formal definition; and "extension" ...
intensive agriculture: in agricultural economics, system of cultivation using large amounts of labour and capital relative to land area. Large amounts of labour and capital are necessary to the application of fertilizer, ...
intention: (Latin: intentio), in scholastic logic and psychology, a concept used to describe a mode of being or relation. In knowing, the mind is said to "intend" or "tend toward" its ...
intentional fallacy: term used in 20th-century literary criticism to describe the problem inherent in trying to judge a work of art by assuming the intent or purpose of the artist who created ...
intentionality: in phenomenology, the characteristic of consciousness whereby it is conscious of something-i.e., its directedness toward an object.
intentionality: in modern literary theory, the study of authorial intention in a literary work and its corresponding relevance to textual interpretation. With the ascendancy of New Criticism after World War I, ...
Inter-American Development Bank: international organization founded in 1959 by 20 governments in North and South America to finance economic and social development in the Western Hemisphere. The largest charter subscribers were Argentina, Brazil, ...
Inter-American Regional Organization of Workers: ,Latin-American labour union federation that was established in 1951 as a regional organization for the Latin-American members of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, which had been founded in ...
interactionism: in Cartesian philosophy and the philosophy of mind, those dualistic theories that hold that mind and body, though separate and distinct substances, causally interact. Interactionists assert that a mental event, ...
interactive multimedia: any computer-delivered electronic system that allows the user to control, combine, and manipulate different types of media, such as text, sound, video, computer graphics, and animation. Interactive multimedia integrate computer, ...
intercalation: insertion of days or months into a calendar to bring it into line with the solar year (year of the seasons). One example is the periodic inclusion of leap-year day ...
intercolumniation: in architecture, space between columns that supports an arch or an entablature (an assemblage of moldings and bands that forms the lowest horizontal beam of a roof). In Classical architecture ...
intercostalis muscle: in human physiology, any of a series of short muscles that extend between the ribs and serve to draw them together during inspiration and forced expiration or expulsive actions. A ...
interdict: in Roman and civil law, a remedy granted by a magistrate on the sole basis of his authority, against a breach of civil law for which there is no stipulated ...
interest: the price paid for the use of credit or money. It may be expressed either in money terms or as a rate of payment.
interest group: any aggregate of individuals that, on the basis of one or more shared concerns, makes claims upon groups or society in general in order to promote its objectives.
interface: surface separating two phases of matter, each of which may be solid, liquid, or gaseous. An interface is not a geometric surface but a thin layer that has properties differing ...
interference: in physics, the net effect of the combination of two or more wave trains moving on intersecting or coincident paths. The effect is that of the addition of the amplitudes ...
interference fringe: a bright or dark band caused by beams of light that are in phase or out of phase with one another. Light waves and similar wave propagation, when superimposed, will ...
interferon: any of several related proteins that are produced by the body's cells as a defensive response to viruses. They are important modulators of the immune response.
interior design: planning and design of man-made spaces, a part of environmental design and closely related to architecture. Although the desire to create a pleasant environment is as old as civilization itself, ...
Interior Lowlands: the broad, generally flat areas of the central part of the North American continent. The name is used in regional geologic and physiographic descriptions of North America and the conterminous ...
interior monologue: in dramatic and nondramatic fiction, narrative technique that exhibits the thoughts passing through the minds of the protagonists. These ideas may be either loosely related impressions approaching free association or ...
Interlaken: town, Bern canton, central Switzerland. It lies along the Aare River, in the Bernese Highland. Its name is derived from its position on the flat plain (Bodeli), 1,864 feet (568 ...
interleukin: any of a group of naturally occurring proteins that mediate communication between cells. Interleukins regulate cell growth, differentiation, and motility. They are particularly important in stimulating immune responses, such as ...
Interlingua: simplified form of Latin intended for use as an international second language. Interlingua was originally developed in 1903 by the Italian mathematician Giuseppe Peano, but lack of clarity as to ...
Interlochen: unincorporated resort village, Grand Traverse county, northwestern Michigan, U.S., located in a fruit-growing region about 10 miles (16 km) south of Traverse City. The village was named for its location ...
interlocutory decree: generally, a judicial decision that is not final or that deals with a point other than the principal subject matter of the controversy at hand. An interlocutory decree of divorce ...
interlude: in theatre, early form of English dramatic entertainment, sometimes considered to be the transition between medieval morality plays and Tudor dramas. Interludes were performed at court or at "great houses" ...
intermediate vector boson: type of boson associated with the electromagnetic and weak forces in unified form. See W particle.
Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty: nuclear-arms-control accord reached by the United States and the Soviet Union in 1987 in which those two nations agreed to eliminate their stocks of intermediate-range and shorter-range (or "medium-range") land-based ...
intermetallic compound: any of a class of substances composed of definite proportions of two or more elemental metals, rather than continuously variable proportions (as in solid solutions). The crystal structures and the ...
intermezzo: in music and theatre, an entertainment performed between the acts of a play; also a light instrumental composition. In the late 15th and 16th centuries, classical and contemporary plays were ...