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melanin: a dark biological pigment (biochrome) found in skin, hair, feathers, scales, eyes, and some internal membranes; it is also found in the peritoneum of many animals (e.g., frogs), but its ...
melanoma: a spreading and frequently recurring cancer of specialized skin cells (melanocytes) that produce the protective skin-darkening pigment melanin. In the United States melanoma represents less than 5 percent of all ...
Melas carpet: floor covering handwoven in the neighbourhood of Milas (Melas) on the Aegean coast of southwestern Turkey. Normally of small size and dating from the 19th century, Melas carpets have unusually ...
melatonin: hormone secreted by the pineal gland, a tiny endocrine gland situated at the centre of the brain. Melatonin was discovered in 1958 by American physician Aaron B. Lerner and his ...
Melba, Dame Nellie: coloratura soprano, a singer of great popularity.
Melbourne: city, capital of the state of Victoria, Australia. It is located at the head of Port Phillip Bay, on the southeastern coast. Although the central city is the home of ...
Melbourne: city, Brevard county, east-central Florida, U.S. It lies on the Intracoastal Waterway along the Indian River (a lagoon separated from the Atlantic Ocean by barrier islands), about 60 miles (95 ...
Melbourne, University of: coeducational institution of higher learning in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, financed mainly by the national government. One of the oldest universities in Australia, it was founded by the Victoria legislature in ...
Melbourne, William Lamb, 2nd Viscount, Lord Melbourne, Baron of Kilmore, Baron Melbourne of Melbourne: British prime minister from July 16 to Nov. 14, 1834, and from April 18, 1835, to Aug. 30, 1841. He was also Queen Victoria's close friend and chief political adviser ...
Melchior, Johann Peter: modeller in porcelain, best known of the artists associated with the great German porcelain factory at Hochst. As a child he showed an interest in drawing, painting, and sculpture, and ...
Melchite: any of the Christians of Syria and Egypt who accepted the ruling of the Council of Chalcedon (451) affirming the two natures-divine and human-of Christ. Because they shared the theological ...
Melchizedek: in the Old Testament, a figure of importance in biblical tradition because he was both king and priest, was connected with Jerusalem, and was revered by Abraham, who paid a ...
Melchizedek priesthood: in the Mormon church (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), the higher of the two priesthoods, concerned with spiritual rather than secular matters. See Mormon.
Meleager: in Greek mythology, the leader of the Calydonian boar hunt. The Iliad relates how Meleager's father, King Oeneus (q.v.) of Calydon, had omitted to sacrifice to Artemis, who sent a ...
Meleager: Greek poet from Gadara in Syria, who compiled the first large anthology of epigrams. This was the first of the collections that made up what is known as the Greek ...
melee: ancient and medieval game, a predecessor of modern football (soccer), in which a round or oval object, usually the inflated bladder of an animal, was kicked, punched, carried, or driven ...
Melen, Ferit: Turkish politician who as prime minister and minister of defense headed a military-approved coalition government noted for harsh measures, including martial law court trials and executions of political foes.
Melendez Valdes, Juan: poet and politician. The representative poet of the Spanish Neoclassic period, he is considered by many critics to be the only genuinely readable poet of that period. He is best ...
Meletios Pegas: Greek Orthodox patriarch of Alexandria who strove by theological arguments and ecclesiastical diplomacy to maintain the position and prestige of Greek Orthodoxy in the Middle East and Eastern Europe.
Meletius of Antioch, Saint: bishop of Antioch whose name is attached to the Meletian schism that split the church of Antioch in the 4th century.
Meletius Of Lycopolis: bishop of Lycopolis, in Upper Egypt, near Thebes, who formed an ascetic, schismatic Christian church holding a rigorous attitude in readmitting apostates who had compromised their faith during pagan persecutions, ...
Melfi: town and episcopal see, Potenza provincia, Basilicata regione, southern Italy, at the foot of the volcanic mass of Monte Vulture, at an elevation of 1,742 feet (531 m), north of ...
Meliaceae: the mahogany family of flowering plants, of the order Sapindales, comprising 51 genera and about 575 species of trees and (rarely) shrubs, native to tropical and subtropical regions. Most members ...
Melies, Georges: early French experimenter with motion pictures, the first to film fictional narratives.
melilite: any member of a series of silicate minerals that consist of calcium silicates of aluminum and magnesium; gehlenite is the aluminous end-member and akermanite the magnesian end-member. These minerals crystallize ...
Melilla: chief town of a Spanish plaza (enclave) on the northern coast of Morocco. The town is located on the eastern side of the Cap des Trois Fourches, a rocky peninsula ...
Meline, Felix-Jules: French politician and premier (1896-98).
melioidosis: a bacterial infection in humans and animals caused by Pseudomonas pseudomallei. Transmission to humans occurs through contact of a skin abrasion with contaminated water or soil rather than through direct ...
Melissus Of Samos: Greek philosopher who was the last significant member of the Eleatic school of philosophy, which adhered to Parmenides' doctrine of reality as a single, unchanging whole. Although Melissus defended Parmenides, ...
Melito Of Sardis: Greek bishop of Sardis in Lydia (now in Turkey), whose rediscovered theological treatise on Easter, "The Lord's Passion," verifies his reputation as a notable early Christian spokesman.
Melitopol: ', city, Zaporozhye oblast (province), Ukraine, on the Molochnaya River. The settlement of Novo-Aleksandrovka grew up in the late 18th century, and in 1841 it became the city of Melitopol. ...
Melk: town, Bundesland ("federal state") Niederosterreich, northeastern Austria. It lies at the confluence of the Danube and Melk rivers, west of Sankt Polten. The town was the site of a Roman ...
Mellencamp, John: American singer-songwriter who became popular in the 1980s by creating basic, often folk-inflected hard rock and presenting himself as a champion of small-town values.
Mellitus of Canterbury, Saint: first bishop of London and the third archbishop of Canterbury (619-624), known for his missionary work and his diplomatic efforts between the Roman church and the churches of Britain.
Mellon Financial Corporation: American bank holding company whose principal subsidiary, Mellon Bank, is one of the largest regional banks in the country. Its headquarters are in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Mellon, Andrew W.: American financier, philanthropist, and secretary of the Treasury (1921-32) who reformed the tax structure of the U.S. government in the 1920s. His benefactions made possible the building of the National ...
mellophone: a brass musical instrument, an alto horn built in coiled form, often used in marching bands as a substitute for the French horn. It is pitched in E♭ or F, ...
Melo: city, northeastern Uruguay. It lies along the Arroyo de los Conventos, an affluent of the Tacuari River, near the Brazilian border. It was founded in 1795 by Captain Agustin de ...
Melo, Francisco Manuel de: Portuguese soldier, diplomat, and courtier who won fame as a poet, moralist, historian, and literary critic in both the Spanish and Portuguese languages.
melodeon: keyboard instrument sounded by the vibration of free reeds by wind. It is an American development of the harmonium, from which it differs in two principal respects. Its foot-operated bellows ...
melodie: (French: "melody"), the accompanied French art song of the 19th and 20th centuries. Following the model of the German Lied, the 19th-century melodie was usually a setting of a serious ...
melodrama: in Western theatre, sentimental drama with an improbable plot that concerns the vicissitudes suffered by the virtuous at the hands of the villainous but ends happily with virtue triumphant. Featuring ...
melody: in music, the aesthetic product of a given succession of pitches in musical time, implying rhythmically ordered movement from pitch to pitch. Melody in Western music by the late 19th ...
melody type: according to 20th-century musicologists, any of a variety of melodic formulas, figurations, and progressions and rhythmic patterns used in the creation of melodies in certain forms of non-European and early ...
melon: any of the varieties of Cucumis melo, a trailing vine grown for its edible, often musky-scented fruit. Melons are members of the horticulturally diverse gourd family (Cucurbitaceae). They are frost-tender ...
melon cactus: the genus Melocactus, containing about 36 species, in the family Cactaceae, native to the West Indies, Central America, and tropical South America, and distinguished by a cephalium-i.e., a woolly and ...
Meloney, Marie Mattingly: American journalist and editor whose active interest in public service and the open exchange of ideas and information marked her editorial tenure at several popular periodicals.
melorheostosis: a rare disorder of bone in which cortical bone overgrowth occurs along the main axis of a bone in such a way as to resemble candle drippings; pain is the ...
Meloria: rocky islet in the Ligurian Sea, off the coast of Tuscany, north central Italy, opposite Livorno. Meloria is known as the site of two 13th-century naval battles, both features of ...
Melos: island, most southwesterly of the major islands of the Greek Cyclades in the Aegean Sea. The greater portion of the 58.1-sq-mi (150.6-sq-km) island, of geologically recent volcanic origin, is rugged, ...
Melozzo Da Forli: early Italian Renaissance painter of the Umbrian school who was one of the great fresco artists of the 15th century. He is mentioned in Forli in 1460 and 1464 and ...
Melpomene: in Greek religion, one of the nine Muses, patron of tragedy and lyre playing. In Greek art her attributes were the tragic mask and the club of Heracles. According to ...
Melqart: Phoenician god, chief deity of Tyre and of two of its colonies, Carthage and Gadir (Cadiz, Spain). He was also called the Tyrian Baal. Under the name Malku he was ...
Melrhir, Chott: lake in northeastern Algeria. Lying almost entirely below sea level, the Chott Melrhir is a marshy, saline lake that fluctuates in area with the seasons; usually, it is more than ...
Melrose: small burgh (town), Scottish Borders council area, historic county of Roxburghshire, Scotland, on the right bank of the River Tweed. It lies 33 miles (53 km) southeast of Edinburgh.
melting point: temperature at which the solid and liquid forms of a pure substance can exist in equilibrium. As heat is applied to a solid, its temperature will increase until the melting ...
Melton: borough (district), administrative and historic county of Leicestershire, south-central England, in the northeastern part of the county. Melton borough encompasses partly wooded, rolling countryside, with an elevation around 400 feet ...
Melun: town, capital of Seine-et-Marne departement, Ile-de-France region, northern France. It lies 28 miles (45 km) south-southeast of Paris. Like Paris, it is situated on both banks of the Seine, and ...
Melun-Senart: new town (French ville nouvelle), located immediately north of Melun in the departements of Seine-et-Marne and Essonne, north-central France. Melun-Senart, which is southeast of Paris, is one of several new ...
Melville Island: island in the Timor Sea, 16 miles (26 km) off the coast of Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia. It is separated from the Australian mainland by Clarence Strait. Measuring about ...
Melville Island: one of the largest of the Parry Islands, in the Arctic Ocean, divided between the Northwest Territories and Nunavut territory, Canada. Separated from Victoria Island (south) by Viscount Melville Sound ...
Melville, Andrew: scholar and Reformer who succeeded John Knox as a leader of the Scottish Reformed Church, giving that church its Presbyterian character by replacing bishops with local presbyteries, and gaining international ...
Melville, George Wallace: U.S. explorer and naval engineer who led the sole surviving party from George Washington De Long's tragic North Polar expedition.
Melville, Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount, Baron Dunira: British careerist politician who held various ministerial offices under William Pitt the Younger and whose adroit control of Scottish politics earned him the nickname "King Harry the Ninth." Educated at ...
Melville, Herman: American novelist, short-story writer, and poet, best known for his novels of the sea, including his masterpiece, Moby Dick (1851).
Melville, James: Scottish Presbyterian reformer and educator.
Melville, Jean-Pierre: French motion-picture director whose early films strongly influenced the directors of the New Wave, the innovative French film movement of the late 1950s.
membrane: in biology, the thin layer that forms the outer boundary of a living cell or of an internal cell compartment. The outer boundary is the plasma membrane, and the compartments ...
membranophone: any of a class of musical instruments in which a stretched membrane vibrates to produce sound. Besides drums, the basic types include the mirliton, or kazoo, and the friction drum ...
Memel dispute: post-World War I dispute regarding sovereignty over the former German Prussian territory of Memelland. Its seizure by Lithuania was eventually approved by the great powers.
Memling, Hans: leading Flemish painter of the Bruges school during the period of the city's political and commercial decline. The number of his imitators and followers testified to his popularity throughout Flanders. ...
Memmi, Albert: French-language Tunisian novelist and author of numerous sociological studies treating the subject of human oppression.
Memmingen: city, Bavaria Land (state), southern Germany. It lies on the Ach River (a small tributary of the Iller), south of Ulm. First mentioned in 1128, it was ...
Memminger, Christopher G: Confederate secretary of the treasury, generally held responsible for the collapse of his government's credit during the American Civil War.
Memnon: in Greek mythology, son of Tithonus (son of Laomedon, legendary king of Troy) and Eos (Dawn) and king of the Ethiopians. He was a post-Homeric hero, who, after the death ...
memoir: history or record composed from personal observation and experience. Closely related to, and often confused with, autobiography, a memoir usually differs chiefly in the degree of emphasis placed on external ...