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lapies: weathered limestone surface found in karst regions and consisting of etched, fluted, and pitted rock pinnacles separated by deep grooves. This rugged surface is formed by the solution of rock ...
lapillus: unconsolidated volcanic fragment with a diameter between 4 and 32 mm (0.16 and 1.26 inches) that was ejected during a volcanic explosion. Lapilli may consist of fresh magma, solid magma ...
lapis lazuli: semiprecious stone valued for its deep blue colour. The source of the pigment ultramarine (q.v.), it is not a mineral but a rock coloured by lazurite (see sodalite). In addition ...
Lapita culture: cultural complex of what were presumably the original human settlers of Melanesia, much of Polynesia, and parts of Micronesia, and dating from between 1600 and 500 BC. It is named ...
Laplace transform: in mathematics, a particular integral transform. The Laplace transform f(p), also denoted by L{F(t)} or Lap F(t), is defined by the integral
Laplace's equation: second-order partial differential equation widely useful in physics, because its solutions R (known as harmonic functions) occur in problems of electrical, magnetic, and gravitational potentials, of steady-state temperatures, and of ...
Laplace, Pierre-Simon, marquis de: French mathematician, astronomer, and physicist who is best known for his investigations into the stability of the solar system.
Lapland: region of northern Europe largely within the Arctic Circle, stretching across northern Norway, Sweden, and Finland and into the Kola Peninsula of Russia. It is bounded by the Norwegian Sea ...
Lapland Nature Reserve: natural area set aside for research in the natural sciences in the western part of the Kola Peninsula, northwestern Russia. It lies west of Lake Imandra and has an area ...
Lappeenranta: city, southeastern Finland. Lappeenranta lies at the southern end of Lake Saimaa, northeast of Kotka. It was a major trade centre during the Middle Ages, with a municipal charter granted ...
Lappenberg, Johann Martin: German archivist who was also a prolific scholar of German and English history.
lappet: any member of the insect genus Tolype of the Lasiocampidae family of moths (order Lepidoptera). The genus includes the eggars, named for their egg-shaped cocoons, and the tent caterpillars, which ...
Lappland: landskap (province) of northern Sweden. Lappland is bounded on the west by Norway, on the north by Finland, on the east by the landskaper (provinces) of Norrbotten and Vasterbotten, and ...
lapse rate: rate of change in temperature observed while moving upward through the Earth's atmosphere. The lapse rate is considered positive when the temperature decreases with elevation, zero when the temperature is ...
lapse, doctrine of: in Indian history, formula devised by Lord Dalhousie, governor-general of India (1848-56), to deal with questions of succession to Hindu Indian states. It was a corollary to the doctrine of ...
Laptev Sea: marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean off the coast of Northern Siberia (Russia), bounded by the Taymyr Peninsula (Poluostrov) and the islands of Severnaya Zemlya on the west and by ...
Lapu-Lapu: city, northwestern Mactan Island, Philippines, on a narrow channel of the Bohol Strait opposite Cebu City. Formerly called Opon, the city was renamed in honour of Chief Lapulapu, who, on ...
Lapua Movement: (1929-32), fascist movement in Finland that threatened the young state's democratic institutions and for a time dictated the policies of the government. It was named for the parish of Lapua, ...
lapwing: any of numerous species of birds of the plover family, Charadriidae (order Charadriiformes), especially the Eurasian lapwing, Vanellus vanellus, of farmlands and grassy plains. The name lapwing, which refers to ...
Lapworth, Charles: English geologist who proposed what came to be called the Ordovician period (505 to 438 million years old) of geologic strata.
laque burgaute: in the decorative arts, East Asian technique of decorating lacquer ware with inlaid designs employing shaped pieces of the iridescent blue-green shell of the sea-ear (Haliotis). This shell inlay is ...
Lar: in Roman religion, any of numerous tutelary deities. They were originally gods of the cultivated fields, worshipped by each household at the crossroads where its allotment joined those of others. ...
Lara: state, northwestern Venezuela. Bordered on the north by Falcon, east by Yaracuy, south by Portuguesa and Trujillo, and west by Zulia, the territory comprises 7,645 sq mi (19,800 sq km) ...
Lara, Brian: West Indian cricketer, one of the sport's most renowned contemporary players. The compact left-handed batsman is the record holder for most runs scored in an innings in both Test (international) ...
Larache: Atlantic port city, northern Morocco, at the mouth of the Oued Loukkos (Lucus River). The ruins of ancient Lixus, successively a Phoenician, Carthaginian, and Roman settlement, are 2 mi (3 ...
Laramide orogeny: a series of mountain-building events that affected much of western North America in Late Cretaceous and Early Tertiary time (the Cretaceous period ended 66.4 million years ago and was followed ...
Laramie: city, seat (1868) of Albany county, southeastern Wyoming, U.S., on the Laramie River, 49 miles (79 km) west of Cheyenne, surrounded by divisions of the Medicine Bow National Forest (headquartered ...
Laramie Mountains: range of the central Rocky Mountains, in southeastern Wyoming, U.S. A northern section of Colorado's Front Range, it stretches north-northwestward for 125 miles (200 km) from the Wyoming-Colorado border, between ...
Laramie River: river in Colorado and Wyoming, U.S., rising in the Front Range in Roosevelt National Forest, northern Colorado. It flows north across the Wyoming border and then turns northwest past the ...
Larbaud, Valery-Nicolas: French novelist and critic, an erudite cosmopolitan who became a literary intermediary between France and Europe, especially England and Spanish-speaking countries.
larceny: in criminal law, the trespassory taking and carrying away of personal goods from the possession of another with intent to steal. Larceny is one of the specific crimes included in ...
larch: any of about 10 to 12 species of coniferous trees constituting the genus Larix of the family Pinaceae, native to cool temperate and sub-Arctic parts of the Northern Hemisphere. One ...
lard: soft, creamy, white solid or semisolid fat with butter-like consistency, obtained by rendering or melting the fatty tissue of hogs. A highly valued cooking and baking fat, lard is blended, ...
Lardner, Ring: American writer, one of the most gifted, as well as the most bitter, satirists in the United States and a fine storyteller with a true ear for the vernacular.
Laredo: city, seat (1848) of Webb county, southern Texas, U.S., on the Rio Grande (there bridged to Nuevo Laredo, Mexico), 150 miles (240 km) southwest of San Antonio. It was established ...
large intestine: posterior section of the intestine, consisting typically of four regions: the cecum, colon, rectum, and anus. The term colon is sometimes used to refer to the entire large intestine.
large mouse-eared bat: species of brown bat (q.v.).
Largilliere, Nicolas de: French historical and portrait painter who excelled in painting likenesses of the wealthy middle classes. Most artists of his time took as their standard of excellence the adherence to classical ...
Largo: city, Pinellas county, west-central Florida, U.S., near Clearwater Harbor and just south of Clearwater. The Spanish explorers Panfilo de Narvaez (1528) and Hernando de Soto (1539) visited the region. The ...
Largo Caballero, Francisco: Spanish socialist leader, prominent during the Second Republic, of which he became prime minister soon after the outbreak of the civil war of 1936-39.
Laridae: family of birds (of the order Charadriiformes) that comprises the gulls (subfamily Larinae) and the terns (subfamily Sterninae). See gull; tern.
Larionov, Mikhail Fyodorovich: Russian-born French painter and stage designer, a pioneer of pure abstraction in painting, most notably through his founding, with Natalya Goncharova, whom he later married, of the Rayonist movement (c. ...
Larissa: town, capital of the nomos (department) of Larisa and the chief town of Thessaly (Thessalia), Greece, on the Pinios Potamos (river). Since the 9th century it has been the seat ...
Laristan: extensive region in southeastern Fars ostan (province), Iran. Situated between the Persian Gulf coast and the main water divide, it is characterized by ridges, dissected uplands, and depressions. The area, ...
Larivey, Pierre de: chief French comic dramatist of the 16th century, whose free translations of Italian comedy provided material for Moliere and others.
lark: family name Alaudidae, any of about 75 species of a songbird family (order Passeriformes). Larks occur throughout the continental Old World; only the horned, or shore, lark (Eremophila alpestris) ...
Larkana: town and district, Sukkur division, Sind Province, Pakistan. The town, the district headquarters, lies on the Ghar Canal just west of the Indus River; it derives its name from the ...
Larkin, Philip: most representative and highly regarded of the poets who gave expression to a clipped, antiromantic sensibility prevalent in English verse in the 1950s.
larkspur: any of about 300 species of herbaceous plants constituting the genus Delphinium of the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae), many of which are grown for their showy flower stalks.
Larmor, Sir Joseph: Irish physicist, the first to calculate the rate at which energy is radiated by an accelerated electron, and the first to explain the splitting of spectrum lines by a magnetic ...
Larnaca: port town, southeastern Republic of Cyprus. The modern town, on the bay between Capes Kiti and Pyla, overlays much of ancient Citium, founded by the Mycenaeans in the 13th century ...
Larne: town, seat, and district (established 1973), formerly in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, bordering the Irish Sea north of Belfast. The Scot Edward Bruce landed near the present town site in ...
Larne River: river, in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, rising in the low watershed (400 ft [122 m]) between its own valley and that of the Six-Mile-Water and flowing northeastward to the important ...
Laroche, Guy: French couturier known for designing elegant fashions at moderate prices.
Laromiguiere, Pierre: French philosopher who became famous for his thesis on the rights of property in connection with taxation, which he held to be arbitrary and therefore illegal. For the thesis he ...
Larousse: Parisian publishing house specializing in encyclopaedias and dictionaries, founded in 1852 by Augustin Boyer and Pierre Larousse, editor of the Grand Dictionnaire universel du XIX^e siecle (15 vol., 1866-76; 2 ...
Larousse, Pierre: grammarian, lexicographer, and encyclopaedist who published many of the outstanding educational and reference works of 19th-century France, including the Grand Dictionnaire universel du XIX^e siecle (15 vol., 1866-76; supplements 1878 ...
Larra, Mariano Jose de: Spanish journalist and satirist who attacked contemporary society for its social habits, literary tastes, and political ineptitude.
Larreta, Enrique: Argentine novelist famous for La gloria de Don Ramiro: Una vida en tiempos de Felipe II (1908; The Glory of Don Ramiro: A Life in the Times of Philip II), ...
Larrey, Dominique-Jean, Baron: French military surgeon in the service of Napoleon; he introduced field hospitals, ambulance service, and first-aid practices to the battlefield.
Larsa: one of the ancient capital cities of Babylonia, located about 20 miles (32 km) southeast of Uruk (Erech; Arabic Tall al-Warka'), in southern Iraq. Larsa was probably founded in prehistoric ...
Larsen Ice Shelf: ice shelf in the northwestern Weddell Sea, adjoining the east coast of the Antarctic Peninsula and named for Captain Carl A. Larsen, who sailed along the ice front in 1893. ...
Larsen, Nella: novelist and short-story writer of the Harlem Renaissance.
Lartet, Edouard Armand Isidore Hippolyte: French geologist, archaeologist, and a principal founder of paleontology, who is chiefly credited with discovering man's earliest art and with establishing a date for the Upper Paleolithic Period of the ...
Lartigue, Jacques-Henri: French photographer and painter noted for the spontaneous, joyful photographs he took beginning in his boyhood and continuing throughout his life.
larva: stage in the development of many animals, occurring after birth or hatching and before the adult form is reached. These immature, active forms are structurally different from the adults and ...
larvacean: any member of the class Larvacea, of the subphylum Urochordata, or Tunicata, belonging to the phylum Chordata. Reaching lengths of 5 mm (0.2 inches), larvaceans are transparent, larva-like organisms that ...
laryngeal cancer: malignant tumour of the larynx. There are two types of tumours found on the larynx that can be malignant. One is called a carcinoma; the other, called a papilloma, often ...
laryngitis: inflammation of the larynx or voice box, caused by chemical or mechanical irritation or bacterial infection. Laryngitis is classified as simple, diphtheritic, tuberculous, or syphilitic laryngitis.
laryngology: a branch of medicine dealing with the larynx, nose, and pharynx. See otolaryngology.
larynx: a hollow, tubular structure connected to the top of the windpipe (trachea); air passes through the larynx on its way to the lungs. The larynx also produces vocal sounds and ...
Las Alpujarras: mountainous district, Granada and Almeria provincias, Andalucia comunidad autonoma ("autonomous community"), southern Spain, stretching northward from the towns of Motril and Almeria to the foothills of the Sierra Nevada and ...
Las Bela: district of Kalat division, Baluchistan Province, Pakistan. A former princely state, it has an area of 7,048 sq mi (18,254 sq km) and is bounded north by Khuzdar district, east ...
Las Casas, Bartolome de: early Spanish historian and Dominican missionary in the Americas, who was the first to expose the oppression of the Indian by the European and to call for the abolition of ...
Las Cases, Emmanuel, Count de: French historian best known as the recorder of Napoleon's last conversations on St. Helena, the publication of which contributed greatly to the Napoleonic legend in Europe.
Las Cruces: city, seat (1852) of Dona Ana county, southern New Mexico, U.S. It lies along the Rio Grande 38 miles (61 km) northwest of El Paso, Texas. It was founded in ...