ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0-9
Id al-Fitr ... Igorot
Id al-Fitr
first of two canonical festivals of Islam. 'Id al-Fitr marks the end of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting, and is celebrated during the first three days of Shawwal, ...
Ida
mountain range in northwestern Asia Minor (now Turkey), near the site of ancient Troy. A classic shrine, Ida was where Paris passed judgment on the rival goddesses and was the ...
Ida
king of Bernicia (from 547), soon after the foundation of the kingdom of Bernicia by the Angles in the British Isles. He built the fortress of Bebbanburh, the modern Bamborough; ...
Idah
town, Kogi state, south-central Nigeria. It lies on a sandstone cliff on the east bank of the Niger River. The traditional capital of the Igala people, Idah was brought under ...
Idaho
constituent state of the United States of America. With 83,564 square miles (216,432 square kilometres), including 1,153 square miles of inland water, it has twice the combined area of the ...
Idaho City
city, seat (1864) of Boise county, southwestern Idaho, U.S., above the confluence of Elk and Mores creeks. It lies in a mountainous area of Boise National Forest at an elevation ...
Idaho Falls
city, seat (1911) of Bonneville county, southeastern Idaho, U.S., on the upper Snake River. Originally the territory of the Shoshone-Bannock and Northern Paiute Indians, it began as the Eagle Rock ...
Idaho State University
public, coeducational institution of higher learning in Pocatello, Idaho, U.S. It comprises colleges of arts and sciences, business, education, engineering, health professions, pharmacy, and technology. The university offers a wide ...
Idaho, University of
public, coeducational institution of higher learning in Moscow, Idaho, U.S. It is a land-grant university consisting of colleges of agricultural and life sciences, art and architecture, business and economics, education, ...
Idalium
ancient city in southern Cyprus, near modern Dali. Of pre-Greek origin, Idalium was one of 10 Cypriot kingdoms listed on the prism (many-sided tablet) of the Assyrian king Esarhaddon (680-669 ...
Idar-Oberstein
city, Rhineland-Palatinate Land (state), southwestern Germany, on the Nahe River at the mouth of the Idarbach. The present city was formed in 1933 through the union of Idar, Oberstein (both ...
iddah
a specified period of time that must elapse before a Muslim widow or divorcee may legitimately remarry. The Qur'an (2:228) prescribes that a menstruating woman have three monthly periods before ...
Iddings, Joseph Paxson
American geologist who demonstrated the genetic relationships of neighbouring igneous rocks formed during a single period of magmatic activity.
ide
common sport and food fish of the carp family, Cyprinidae, widely distributed in rivers and lakes of Europe and western Siberia. An elongated, rather stout fish, the ide is blue-gray ...
ideal language
in analytic philosophy, a language that is precise, free of ambiguity, and clear in structure, on the model of symbolic logic, as contrasted with ordinary language, which is vague, misleading, ...
ideal solution
homogeneous mixture of substances that has physical properties linearly related to the properties of the pure components. The classic statement of this condition is Raoult's law, which is valid for ...
ideal type
a common mental construct in the social sciences derived from observable reality although not conforming to it in detail because of deliberate simplification and exaggeration. It is not ideal in ...
Idealism
in philosophy, any view that stresses the central role of the ideal or the spiritual in the interpretation of experience. It may hold that the world or reality exists essentially ...
idee recue
an idea that is unexamined. The phrase is particularly associated with Gustave Flaubert, who in his Le Dictionnaire des idees recues (published posthumously in 1913; Flaubert's Dictionary of Accepted Ideas) ...
Idelsohn, Abraham Zevi
Jewish cantor, composer, founder of the modern study of the history of Jewish music, and one of the first important ethnomusicologists.
Idemitsu Kosan Co., Ltd.
Japanese petrochemical corporation founded in 1911, as Idemitsu Shokai, and reorganized and incorporated under its current name in 1940. Headquarters are in Tokyo.
identity theory
in philosophy, one view of modern Materialism that asserts that mind and matter, however capable of being logically distinguished, are in actuality but different expressions of a single reality that ...
ideology
a form of social or political philosophy in which practical elements are as prominent as theoretical ones. It is a system of ideas that aspires both to explain the world ...
Ideology
French philosophic movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries that reduced epistemological problems (concerning the nature or grounds of knowledge) to those of psychology (as in the work ...
Idfu
town on the west bank of the Nile in Aswan muhafazah (governorate), Upper Egypt.
Idhi
mountain riddled with caves, west-central Crete, in the nomos (department) of Rethimnon, southern Greece. One of Idhi's two peaks, Timios Stavros, at 8,058 feet (2,456 m), is Crete's highest mountain. ...
idiophone
class of musical instruments in which a resonant solid material-such as wood, metal, or stone-vibrates to produce the initial sound. The eight basic types are concussion, friction, percussion, plucked, scraped, ...
idiorrhythmic monasticism
the original form of monastic life in Christianity, as exemplified by St. Anthony of Egypt (c. 250-355). It consisted of a total withdrawal from society, normally in the desert, and ...
Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race
annual dogsled race held in March between Anchorage and Nome, Alaska, U.S. Both men and women compete together. A short race of 56 miles (90 km) organized in 1967 evolved ...
Idku
town, northern al-Buhayrah muhafazah (governorate), Lower Egypt. It lies on a sandy strip behind Abu Qir Bay, in the northwestern Nile River delta. Immediately south is Lake Idku, a 58-square-mile ...
Idlib
town, northwestern Syria. It is situated in a fertile basin midway between Aleppo and Latakia and is an important textile centre and a market for one of Syria's better agricultural ...
Ido
artificial language constructed by the French logician and Esperantist Louis de Beaufront and presented at the Delegation pour l'Adoption d'une Langue Auxiliaire Internationale (Delegation for the Adoption of an International ...
idolatry
in Judaism and Christianity, the worship of someone or something other than God as though it were God. The first of the biblical Ten Commandments prohibits idolatry: "You shall have ...
Idoma
inhabitants of the region east of the confluence of the Niger and Benue rivers in southern Nigeria. A number of peoples, including the Agala, Iyala, Okpoto, Nkum, and Iguwale, are ...
Idomeneus
in Greek legend, son of Deucalion, grandson of Minos and Pasiphae, and king of Crete. He courted Helen and took a distinguished part in the Trojan War. According to the ...
Idris
an immortal figure in Islamic legend, mentioned in the Qur'an (Islamic sacred scriptures) as a prophet. According to the traditions of the Sunnah, the major sect of Islam, Idris appeared ...
Idris I
in full Sidi Muhammad Idris Al-mahdi As-sanusi the first king of Libya when that country gained its independence in 1951.
Idris ibn Raja Iskandar, Sultan
sultan of Perak, 1887-1916.
Idris, Yusuf
Egyptian playwright and novelist who broke with traditional Arabic literature by mixing colloquial dialect with conventional classical Arabic narration in the writing of realistic stories about ordinary villagers.
Idrisi, ash-Sharif al-
Arab geographer, an adviser to Roger II, the Norman king of Sicily. He wrote one of the greatest works of medieval geography, Kitab nuzhat al-mushtaq fi ikhtiraq al-afaq ("The Pleasure ...
Idrisid Dynasty
Arab Muslim dynasty that ruled in the Berber areas of Morocco from 789 until 921.
Idukki
town, southeastern Kerala state, southwestern India. It lies 81 miles (130 km) southeast of Cochin and 79 miles (127 km) northeast of Kottayam. It is known for its large hydroelectric ...
Idun
in Norse mythology, the goddess of spring or rejuvenation and the wife of Bragi, the god of poetry. She was the keeper of the magic apples of immortality, which the ...
idyll
also spelled Idyl (from Greek eidyllion, "little picture"), a short poem of a pastoral or rural character in which something of the element of landscape is depicted or suggested. ...
If
small Mediterranean island 2 miles (3.2 km) outside the port of Marseille, Fr. Its castle, built by the French king Francis I in 1524, was later used as a state ...
if, Al-
city, western Saudi Arabia. Lying at an elevation of 6,165 feet (1,879 metres) on a tableland southeast of Mecca, it is the country's principal summer resort. Once the seat of ...
Ifat
Muslim state that flourished in central Ethiopia from 1285 to 1415 in the fertile uplands of eastern Shewa. Toward the end of the 13th century a ruler whose dynastic title ...
Iffland, August Wilhelm
German actor, dramatist, and manager, a major influence on German theatre.
Ifni
former north African enclave of Spain and now part of the southwestern region of Morocco, along the Atlantic coast. An arid semidesert region of mountains and coastal plain, Ifni was ...
Ifrane
town, north-central Morocco. Founded in 1929, Ifrane is situated in the Moyen (Middle) Atlas Mountains and includes in its immediate environs Morocco's premier winter and summer resort areas. Located at ...
ifrit
in Islamic mythology, a class of infernal jinn (spirits below the level of angels and devils) noted for their strength and cunning. An ifrit is an enormous winged creature of ...
Ifugao
group of wet-rice agriculturalists occupying the mountainous area of northern Luzon, Philippines. They are of Malay stock and their language is Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian), as is that of their neighbours, but ...
IG Farben
(German: "Syndicate of Dyestuff-Industry Corporations"), world's largest chemical concern, or cartel, from its founding in Germany in 1925 until its dissolution by the Allies after World War II. The IG ...
Igala
a largely Muslim people of Nigeria, living on the left bank of the Niger River below its junction with the Benue River. Their language belongs to the Kwa subgroup of ...
Igarashi Family
Japanese lacquerware artists who specialized in the maki-e technique, wherein a design is made by sprinkling minute gold, silver, or copper flakes over a lacquer ground. The founder of the ...
Igarka
city, Krasnoyarsk kray (region), central Russia. It is 60 miles (100 km) north of the Arctic Circle and lies along the Yenisey River, 418 miles (673 km) from the sea, ...
Igbira
inhabitants of the areas northeast and southwest of the confluence of the Niger and Benue rivers in central Nigeria. Their language is usually classified as a Nupoid variety within the ...
Igbo
people living chiefly in southeastern Nigeria who speak Igbo, a language of the Benue-Congo branch of the Niger-Congo language family. The Igbo may be grouped into the following main cultural ...
Igboid languages
a language cluster that constitutes a subbranch of the Benue-Congo branch of the Niger-Congo language family. There are nearly 20 million speakers of Igboid languages in southeastern Nigeria. In the ...
Iggy and the Stooges
American band of the late 1960s and early 1970s that helped define punk music. Both with the Stooges and in his subsequent solo career, Iggy Pop had a far-reaching influence ...
Iglesia ni Kristo
the largest entirely indigenous Christian church in the Philippines. Its members assert that the early Christian church was restored in God's chosen nation, the Filipinos, when Felix Manalo launched this ...
Iglesias
town and episcopal see, Cagliari provincia, southwestern Sardinia, Italy. It lies west-northwest of Cagliari city. The town's cathedral dates from 1288, and the 15th-century Church of San Francesco is a ...
Iglesias, Pablo
political leader who played a significant role in the development of Spanish democratic socialism and trade unionism.
igloo
temporary winter home or hunting-ground dwelling of Canadian and Greenland Inuit (Eskimos). The term igloo, or iglu, from Eskimo igdlu ("house"), is related to Iglulik, a town, and Iglulirmiut, an ...
Ignarro, Louis J.
American pharmacologist who, along with Robert F. Furchgott and Ferid Murad, was co-awarded the 1998 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery that nitric oxide (NO) acts as ...
Ignatius of Antioch, Saint
bishop of Antioch, Syria, known mainly from seven highly regarded letters that he wrote during a trip to Rome, as a prisoner condemned to be executed for his beliefs. He ...
Ignatow, David
American poet whose works address social as well as personal issues in meditative, vernacular free verse.
Ignatyev, Nikolay Pavlovich, Graf
pan-Slavist diplomat and statesman who played a major role in the administration of Russia's foreign policy in Asia under Tsar Alexander II (reigned 1855-81).
igneous rock
any of various crystalline or glassy rocks formed by the cooling and solidification of molten earth material. Igneous rocks comprise one of the three principal classes of rocks, the others ...
ignimbrite
rock composed of compacted volcanic ejecta (see tuff).
ignition system
in a gasoline engine, means employed for producing an electric spark to ignite the fuel-air mixture; the burning of this mixture in the cylinders produces the motive force.
ignitron
electron tube functioning as a rectifier to convert alternating current (AC) to direct current (DC). Each conduction cycle is started by an external voltage applied to the igniter, a small ...
Igor
grand prince of Kiev and presumably the son of Rurik, prince of Novgorod, who is considered the founder of the dynasty that ruled Kievan Rus and, later, Muscovy until 1598. ...
Igor Svyatoslavich
prince of the Russian lands of Novgorod-Seversky (modern Novhorod-Siverskyy, Ukraine) after 1178 and of Chernigovsky (1198-1202; modern Chernihiv, Ukraine), who led an unsuccessful campaign against the Cumans (Polovtsy) in 1185.
Igor's Campaign, The Song of
masterpiece of Old Russian literature, an account of the unsuccessful campaign in 1185 of Prince Igor of Novgorod-Seversky against the Polovtsy (Kipchak, or Cumans). As in the great French epic ...
Igorot
any of various ethnic groups in the mountains of northern Luzon, Philippines, all of whom keep, or have kept until recently, their traditional religion and way of life. Some live ...