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lekythos ... Lenz's law

lekythos: in ancient Greek pottery, oil flask used at baths and gymnasiums and for funerary offerings. The flask has a long, cylindrical body gracefully tapered to the base, and a narrow ...
Leland, Charles Godfrey: American poet and writer of miscellany, best-known for the "Hans Breitmann Ballads," which reproduce the dialect and humour of the Philadelphia Germans (also called Pennsylvania Dutch).
Leland, Henry Martyn: American engineer and manufacturer whose rigorous standards contributed to the development of the automobile.
Leland, John: chaplain and librarian to King Henry VIII. He was the earliest of a notable group of English antiquarians.
Lelantine War: conflict arising during the late 8th century BC from colonial disputes and trade rivalry between the Greek cities of Chalcis and Eretria.
Lelewel, Joachim: prominent Polish historian, regarded as one of the founders of modern Polish historical thought.
Leloir, Luis Federico: Argentine biochemist who won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1970 for his investigations of the processes by which carbohydrates are converted into energy in the body.
Lelouch, Claude: motion-picture director, noted chiefly for his lush visual style, who achieved prominence in 1966 with his film Un Homme et une femme (A Man and a Woman), which shared the ...
Lely, Sir Peter: Baroque portrait painter known for his Van Dyck-influenced likenesses of the mid-17th-century English aristocracy. The origin of the name Lely is uncertain.
Lelystad: gemeente (municipality) and capital, Flevoland provincie (province), north-central Netherlands, on the IJsselmeer (Lake IJssel). After the East Flevoland Polder was drained in 1957, the town was built on a foundation ...
Lem, Stanislaw: Polish author of science fiction that veers between humanism and despair about human limitations. His books have been translated into more than 35 languages.
Lemaire de Belges, Jean: Walloon poet, historian, and pamphleteer who, writing in French, was the last and one of the best of the school of poetic rhetoriqueurs ("rhetoricians") and the chief forerunner, both ...
Lemaitre, Georges: Belgian astronomer and cosmologist who formulated the modern big-bang theory, which holds that the universe began in a cataclysmic explosion of a small, primeval "super-atom."
Lemaitre, Jules: French critic, storyteller, and dramatist, now remembered for his uniquely personal and impressionistic style of literary criticism.
Lemass, Sean F: Irish patriot, politician, and prime minister from 1959 to 1966.
LeMay, Curtis E: U.S. Air Force officer whose expertise in strategic bombardment techniques was important during World War II and afterward.
Lemercier, Jacques: French architect who, along with Francois Mansart and Louis Le Vau, defined French classical architecture.
Lemercier, Nepomucene: poet and dramatist, a late proponent of classical tragedy over Romanticism, and the originator of French historical comedy.
lemming: any of 20 species of small rodents, some of which undertake large, swarming migrations. Lemmings are found only in the Northern Hemisphere. They have short, stocky bodies with short legs ...
Lemming, Eric: Swedish track-and-field athlete who was the first great javelin thrower of the modern era. He won gold medals in the first two Olympic javelin contests.
Lemmon, Jack: American screen and stage actor adept at both comedy and drama and noted for his portrayals of high-strung or neurotic characters in American films from the 1950s onward.
Lemnitzer, Lyman: U.S. Army general, commander of the United Nations forces in the Korean War (1955-57), chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1960-62), and supreme allied commander in Europe (1963-69).
Lemnos: isolated Greek island in the Aegean Sea, midway between Mount Athos (in northeastern mainland Greece) and the Turkish coast, in the nomos (department) of Lesbos. Composed mainly of volcanic rock, ...
lemon: (Citrus limon), small tree or spreading bush of the rue family (Rutaceae) and its edible fruit. The lemon forms a spreading bush or a small tree, 3-6 m (10-20 feet) ...
lemon shark: species of shark in the family Carcharhinidae. See carcharhinid.
lemon verbena: (Aloysia triphylla, or Lippia citriodora), tropical perennial shrub belonging to the family Verbenaceae, originating in Argentina and Chile. Growing more than 3 m (10 feet) high in warm climates, it ...
LeMond, Greg: American bicycle racer who was the first non-European rider to win the Tour de France, the most celebrated and challenging event in cycling. In his career he won the Tour ...
Lemonnier, Camille: novelist, short-story writer, and art critic, one of the outstanding personalities of the 19th-century French literary renaissance in Belgium.
Lemoyne, Jean-Baptiste: French sculptor chiefly important for his portrait busts.
Lempa River: river in Central America. It rises in Guatemala near Esquipulas, crosses a corner of Honduras, and enters El Salvador at Citala. After cutting across El Salvador's northern mountain range, it ...
lemur: generally, any primitive primate except the tarsier; more specifically, any of the indigenous primates of Madagascar. In the broad sense, the term lemur applies not only to the typical lemurs ...
Lemures: in Roman religion, wicked and fearsome spectres of the dead. Appearing in grotesque and terrifying forms, they were said to haunt their living relatives and cause them injury. To propitiate ...
Lena River: major river of Russia and the 10th longest river in the world. It flows 2,734 miles (4,400 km) from its sources in the mountains along the western shores of Lake ...
Lenard, Philipp: German physicist and recipient of the 1905 Nobel Prize for Physics for his research on cathode rays and the discovery of many of their properties. His results had important implications ...
Lenau, Nikolaus: Austrian poet known for melancholy lyrical verse that mirrors the pessimism of his time as well as his personal despair.
Lenbach, Franz von: painter whose powerful characterizations made him the favoured portraitist of late 19th-century Germany.
Lenca: Indians of the northern highlands of Honduras and El Salvador who are somewhat intermediate culturally between the Maya to the north and circum-Caribbean peoples such as the Kuna to the ...
Lenclos, Ninon de: celebrated French courtesan.
lend-lease: system by which the United States aided its World War II allies with war materials, such as ammunition, tanks, airplanes, and trucks, and with food and other raw materials. President ...
Leng-hu: town, northwestern Tsinghai sheng (province), western China. Leng-hu is situated in the northwestern part of the Tsaidam Basin, to the southwest of Tang-chin Pass, which leads from the Tsaidam into ...
Lenglen, Suzanne: French tennis player and six-time Wimbledon champion in both singles and doubles competition, whose athletic play, combining strength and speed, changed the nature of women's tennis and positioned her as ...
Lenin: world's first nuclear-powered surface ship, a large icebreaker built by the Soviet Union in Leningrad (St. Petersburg) in 1957. The Lenin is 440 feet (134 m) long, displaces 16,000 tons, ...
Lenin Peak: highest summit (23,406 feet [7,134 m]) of the Trans-Alay Range on the frontier of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Once thought to be the highest mountain in what was then the Soviet ...
Lenin's Testament: two-part document dictated by Vladimir I. Lenin on Dec. 23-26, 1922, and Jan. 4, 1923, and addressed to a future Communist Party Congress. It contained guideline proposals for changes in ...
Lenin, Order of: highest civilian award of the U.S.S.R. It was established in 1930 by the Central Executive Committee of the Soviet Union and awarded to individuals, collectives, institutions, or organizations for outstanding ...
Lenin, Vladimir Ilich: founder of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks), inspirer and leader of the Bolshevik Revolution (1917), and the architect, builder, and first head (1917-24) of the Soviet state. He was the ...
Leningrad: oblast (province), northwestern Russia. It comprises all the Karelian Isthmus and the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland as far west as Narva. It extends eastward along the southern ...
Leningrad Affair: (1948-50), in the history of the Soviet Union, a sudden and sweeping purge of Communist Party and government officials in Leningrad and the surrounding region. The purge occurred several months ...
Leningrad, Siege of: (Sept. 8, 1941-Jan. 27, 1944), prolonged siege of the city of Leningrad (St. Petersburg) in the Soviet Union by German and Finnish armed forces during World War II. The siege ...
Leninism: principles expounded by Vladimir I. Lenin, who was the preeminent figure in the Russian Revolution of 1917. Whether Leninist concepts represented a contribution to or a corruption of Marxist thought ...
Leninogorsk: city, northeastern Kazakstan. The city is situated in the southwestern Altai Mountains along the Ulba River, at an elevation of more than 3,300 feet (1,000 m). An Englishman, Philip Ridder, ...
Leninsk-Kuznetsky: city, in Kemerovo oblast (province), central Russia. It lies along the Inya River, a tributary of the Ob. In 1912 a French company started coal-mining operations there; from the 1930s ...
Lennep, Jacob van: Dutch novelist, poet, and leading man of letters in the mid-19th century.
Lenngren, Anna Maria: Swedish poet whose Neoclassical satires and pastoral idylls show a balance and moderation characteristic of the Enlightenment period and are still read for their gaiety and elegance.
Lennoaceae: the sand food family, composed of three genera and four to six species of curious, parasitic plants, which send out rootlike structures (haustoria) that penetrate the roots of other plants ...
Lennox, Charlotte: English novelist whose work, especially The Female Quixote, was much admired by leading literary figures of her time, including Samuel Johnson and the novelists Henry Fielding and Samuel Richardson.
Lennox, Margaret Douglas, Countess of: prominent intriguer in England during the early reign of Queen Elizabeth I.
Leno, Dan: popular English entertainer who is considered the foremost representative of the British music hall at its height in the 19th century. In 1901 Leno gave a command performance for King ...
Lenoir, Etienne: Belgian inventor who devised the first commercially successful internal-combustion engine.
Lenormand, Henri-Rene: French dramatist, the most important of those playwrights concerned with subconscious motivation who flourished between World Wars I and II.
Lenormand, Louis-Sebastien: French aeronaut, generally recognized as the first person to make a parachute descent. He was not the inventor of the parachute; the ancient Chinese may have devised one, and it ...
Lenormant, Francois: French Assyriologist and numismatist who recognized, from cuneiform inscriptions, a language now known as Akkadian that proved valuable to the understanding of Mesopotamian civilization 3,000 years before the Christian era. ...
Lenox: town (township), Berkshire county, western Massachusetts, U.S. It lies in the Berkshire Hills, just south of Pittsfield. Settled about 1750 and originally called Yokuntown, it was set off from Richmond ...
Lenox, James: American philanthropist and pioneer book collector.
lens: in optics, piece of glass or other transparent substance that is used to form an image of an object by focusing rays of light from the object. A lens is ...
lens: in anatomy, a colourless, nearly transparent biconvex structure suspended behind the iris of the eye, the sole function of which is to focus light rays onto the retina. The lens ...
Lens: industrial town, Pas-de-Calais departement, Nord-Pas-de-Calais region, northern France, south-southwest of Lille. It is the chief urban centre of the Pas-de-Calais coal basin (a portion of which was scheduled to be ...
lens dislocation: abnormal position of the crystalline lens of the eye. The dislocation, which may be congenital or acquired, has as its immediate cause weakness or loss of a portion of the ...
Lent: in the Christian church, a period of penitential preparation for Easter. In Western churches it begins on Ash Wednesday, 612 weeks before Easter, and provides for a 40-day fast (Sundays ...
Lenthall, William: English Parliamentarian who, as speaker of the House of Commons, was at the centre of repeated struggles between the Parliamentarians and Royalists during the English Civil Wars. His later cooperation ...
lentil: (species Lens esculenta), small annual legume of the pea family (Leguminosae) and its lens-shaped edible seed, which is rich in protein and one of the most ancient of cultivated foods. ...
Lentulus Crus, Lucius Cornelius: Roman politician, a leading member of the senatorial party that vigorously opposed Julius Caesar.
Lentulus Spinther, Publius Cornelius: a leading supporter of the Roman general Pompey the Great during the Civil War (49-45 BC) between Pompey and Julius Caesar.
Lentulus, Publius Cornelius: a leading figure in Catiline's conspiracy (63 BC) to seize control of the Roman government.
Lenya, Lotte: Austrian actress-singer who popularized much of the music of her first husband, the composer Kurt Weill, and appeared frequently in the musical dramas of Weill and his longtime collaborator Bertolt ...
Lenz's law: in electromagnetism, statement that an induced electric current flows in a direction such that the current opposes the change that induced it. This law was deduced in 1834 by the ...