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Naperville: city, DuPage and Will counties, northeastern Illinois, U.S. It lies on the West Branch Du Page River, about 30 miles (50 km) west of Chicago. The oldest city in DuPage ...
Naphtali: one of the 12 tribes that in biblical times constituted the people of Israel who later became the Jewish people. The tribe was named after the younger of two sons ...
naphtha: any of various volatile, highly flammable liquid hydrocarbon mixtures used chiefly as solvents and diluents and as raw materials for conversion to gasoline. Naphtha was the name originally applied to ...
naphthalene: the simplest of the fused or condensed ring hydrocarbon compounds composed of two benzene rings sharing two adjacent carbon atoms; chemical formula, C₁₀H₈. It is an important hydrocarbon raw material ...
naphthol: either of two colourless, crystalline organic compounds derived from naphthalene and belonging to the phenol family; each has the molecular formula C₁₀H₇OH. Both compounds have long been identified with the ...
Napier: city and port, Hawke's Bay local government region, eastern North Island, New Zealand, on the southwestern shore of Hawke Bay. Laid out in 1856, the town was named for Sir ...
Napier, John: Scottish mathematician and theological writer who originated the concept of logarithms as a mathematical device to aid in calculations.
Napier, MacVey: Scottish lawyer, first professor of conveyancing at the University of Edinburgh, who was an innovative editor of the Supplement to the 4th, 5th, and 6th editions of Encyclopaedia Britannica and ...
Napier, Robert Napier, 1st Baron: British field marshal, who had a distinguished military and civil engineering career in India and commanded military expeditions to Ethiopia and China.
Napier, Sir Charles James: British general, who conquered (1843) Sind (now in Pakistan) and served as its governor (1843-47).
Napier, Sir Charles, Count Napier De Sao Vicente: admiral in the Portuguese and British navies, controversial commander of the British Baltic Fleet during the Crimean War of 1853-56. Created Conde Napier de Sao Vicente in the Portuguese peerage, ...
Napier, Sir William Francis Patrick: British general and historian who fought in the Napoleonic Wars, particularly in the Peninsular War in Spain and Portugal; he wrote the popular History of the War in the Peninsula ...
Naples: resort city, seat (1966) of Collier county, southwestern Florida, U.S. It lies at the edge of Big Cypress Swamp, on the Gulf of Mexico, about 35 miles (55 km) south ...
Naples: city, capital of Naples provincia, Campania regione, southern Italy. It lies on the west coast of the Italian Peninsula, 120 miles (190 kilometres) southeast ...
Naples, Bay of: semicircular inlet of the Tyrrhenian Sea (an arm of the Mediterranean Sea), southwest of the city of Naples, southern Italy. It is 10 miles (16 km) wide and extends southeastward ...
Naples, kingdom of: state covering the southern portion of the Italian peninsula from the Middle Ages to 1860. It was often united politically with Sicily.
Naples, University of: coeducational state university at Naples founded in 1224 as a studium generale by the Holy Roman emperor Frederick II to offset the dominant influence of the university at Bologna. Although ...
Napo River: river in northeastern Ecuador and northeastern Peru. It flows from the eastern slopes of the Andes in Ecuador and descends generally eastward to the Peruvian border. There it turns southeastward ...
Napoleon I: French general, first consul (1799-1804), and emperor of the French (1804-1814/15), one of the most celebrated personages in the history of the West. He revolutionized military organization and training; sponsored ...
Napoleon III: nephew of Napoleon I, president of the Second Republic of France (1850-52), and then emperor of the French (1852-70). He gave his country two decades of prosperity under a stable, ...
Napoleonic Code: French civil code enacted in 1804 and still extant, with revisions; it has been the main influence in the 19th-century civil codes of most countries of continental Europe and Latin ...
Nappanee: city, Elkhart county, northern Indiana, U.S., 26 miles (42 km) southeast of South Bend. Founded in 1874, it adopted an Algonquian Indian name (probably meaning "flour") and developed along the ...
nappe: in geology, large body or sheet of rock that has been moved a distance of about 2 km (1.2 miles) or more from its original position by faulting or folding. ...
Naqadah: town, Upper Egypt. It lies on the west bank of the Nile, in the great bend of the river, opposite Qus, in Qina muhafazah (governorate). One of the oldest regions ...
Naqshbandiyah: orthodox fraternity of Muslim mystics (Sufis) found in India, China, the Central Asian republics, and Malaysia. It claims a lineage extending back to Abu Bakr, the first caliph. Baha' ad-Din ...
Nara: city, Nara ken (prefecture), southern Honshu, Japan. The city of Nara, the prefectural capital, is located in the hilly northeastern edge of the Nara Basin, 25 miles (40 km) east ...
Nara: ken (prefecture), southern Honshu, Japan. The prefecture occupies the central part of the Kii Peninsula. Its southern and northeastern portions are mountainous, while the northwest is composed of the lowland ...
Nara Canal: important water channel in Sindh province, Pakistan. From its source above Rohri, it runs southward and discharges into the Puran River, an old channel of the Indus River, which flows ...
Nara National Museum: in Nara, Japan, art museum devoted primarily to Buddhist art. Exhibits include dry-lacquer works, wooden statues, and lacquered wood from the earlier and later Heian periods. There are Kamakura sculptures, ...
Nara period: (AD 710-784), in Japanese history, period in which the imperial government was at Nara, and Sinicization and Buddhism were most highly developed. Nara, the country's first permanent capital, was modeled ...
Naracoorte: town and rail junction, southeastern South Australia. It lies 190 miles (310 km) southeast of Adelaide, near the Victoria border. Founded as Kincraig in 1845, it took its present name ...
Narai: king of Siam (1656-88), who was best known for his efforts in foreign affairs and whose court produced the first "golden age" of Thai literature.
Narameikhla: founder and first king (reigned 1404-34) of the Mrohaung dynasty in Arakan, the maritime country lying to the west of Lower Burma on the Bay of Bengal, which had been ...
Narashino: city, Chiba ken (prefecture), Honshu, Japan. Narashino is situated on the northeastern shore of Tokyo Bay. Formed in 1951 by the merger of Minomi, Maka, Tsuda-numa, and ...
Narasimha: (Sanskrit: "Man-Lion"), fourth of the 10 avatars (incarnations) of the Hindu god Vishnu. The demon Hiranyakasipu, twin brother of the demon overthrown by Vishnu in his previous incarnation as Varaha, ...
Narathiwat: town, extreme southern Thailand, on the east coast of the Malay Peninsula. Narathiwat is a minor port inhabited largely by Malay Muslims. Fishing and shipping are the main activities. The ...
Narayan, Jaya Prakash: Indian political leader and theorist.
Narayan, R.K.: one of the finest Indian authors of his generation writing in English.
Narayanan, Kocheril Raman: Indian politician and diplomat, who was the president of India from 1997 to 2002. He was the first member of the country's lowest social caste, the group traditionally considered to ...
Narayanganj: city, east-central Bangladesh, situated along both banks of the Lakhya River at its confluence with the Dhaleswari. The chief river port for nearby Dhaka, the city also has steamer connections ...
Narbonensis: ancient Roman province that lay between the Alps, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Cevennes Mountains. It comprised what is now southeastern France.
Narbonne: city, Aude departement, Languedoc-Roussillon region, southeastern France. It lies on a vine-growing plain 8 miles (13 km) from the Mediterranean and east of Carcassonne.
narcissus: any member of a genus (Narcissus) of bulbous, often fragrant, ornamental plants in the family Amaryllidaceae. The genus contains about 40 species, native primarily to Europe. Daffodil, or narcissus (N. ...
Narcissus: freedman who used his position as correspondence secretary (ab epistulis) to the Roman emperor Claudius (ruled 41-54) to become, in effect, a minister of state.
Narcissus: in Greek mythology, the son of the river god Cephissus and the nymph Leiriope; he was distinguished for his beauty. His mother was told that he would have a long ...
narcolepsy: a sleep disturbance that is characterized by sudden, uncontrollable spells of sleep during the day, with disturbances of sleep at night.
narcotic: drug that produces analgesia (pain relief), narcosis (state of stupor or sleep), and addiction (physical dependence on the drug). In some people narcotics also produce euphoria (a feeling of great ...
Nardi, Jacopo: Florentine statesman and historian who wrote a history of Florence that sharply criticized the ruling Medici family.
Nardini, Pietro: Italian violinist and composer, one of the most eminent violinists of the 18th century.
Nardo: town, Lecce provincia, Puglia (Apulia) regione, southeastern Italy, southwest of Lecce city. Originally the Roman city of Neretum, Nardo was both Byzantine and Norman; it has a 13th-14th-century cathedral in ...
Naresuan: king of Siam (1590-1605), regarded as a national hero by the Thai people for having liberated the country from the Myanmar (Burmese).
Narew River: east-bank tributary of the Vistula River that rises in western Belarus and flows into eastern Poland. The Narew River is 272 miles (438 km) long and drains an area of ...
Narino: departamento, southwestern Colombia, bounded by the Pacific Ocean on the west and Ecuador on the south. Its population is concentrated principally in the volcanic Andean highlands above 5,000 feet (1,500 ...
Nariokotome: site in northern Kenya known for the 1984 discovery of a nearly complete skeleton of African Homo erectus (also called H. ergaster) dating to approximately 1.5 million years ago.
Narita: city, Chiba ken, central Honshu, Japan. It is located approximately 30 miles (50 km) east of Tokyo, on the Ryoso Plateau. Originally an agricultural region producing rice, peanuts (groundnuts), sweet ...
Narke: landskap (province) lying mostly in the administrative lan (county) of Orebro, south-central Sweden. Its land area of 1,592 square miles (4,122 square km) lies between the traditional landskap (provinces) of ...
Narmada River: river in central India, rising in the Maikala Range in east-central Madhya Pradesh state. Following a tortuous course through the hills of Mandla, it enters the structural trough between the ...
Narni: town, Terni provincia, Umbria regione, central Italy, situated on a hilltop above the Nera River. It originated as the Umbrian Nequinum (later Narnia, after the Roman conquest) and was the ...
Naro-Fominsk: city and centre of a rayon (sector), Moscow oblast (province), western Russia, on the Nara River southwest of the capital. It was formed in 1926 from three villages and textile ...
Narodnaya Volya: 19th-century Russian revolutionary organization that regarded terrorist activities as the best means of forcing political reform and overthrowing the tsarist autocracy.
Narodnaya, Mount: ("People's Mountain"), peak of the Nether-Polar section of the Ural Mountains in west-central Russia. Rising to 6,217 feet (1,895 m), it is the highest mountain in the Urals range. Several ...
Narodnik: member of a 19th-century socialist movement in Russia who believed that political propaganda among the peasantry would lead to the awakening of the masses and, through their influence, to the ...
narodnost: doctrine or national principle, the meaning of which has changed over the course of Russian literary criticism. Originally denoting simply literary fidelity to Russia's distinct cultural heritage, narodnost, in the ...
narra: any of several timber trees of the genus Pterocarpus of the pea family (Fabaceae or Leguminosae). The name refers especially to P. indicus, or India padauk, or the hard wood, ...
Narrabri: town, northeastern New South Wales, Australia. It lies along Narrabri Creek (tributary of the Namoi River), just west of the Nandewar Range. Surveyed in 1859 and declared a municipality in ...
Narraganset: Algonkian-speaking Indian tribe that occupied most of what is now the U.S. state of Rhode Island west of Narragansett Bay. They were grouped in eight territorial divisions, each with a ...
Narragansett: town (township), southeastern Washington county, southern Rhode Island, U.S., at the entrance to Narragansett Bay. The Pettaquamscutt River (north) and Point Judith Pond (south) form the western boundary of the ...
Narragansett Bay: inlet of the North Atlantic, extending northward (from Rhode Island Sound) for 28 mi (45 km) into Rhode Island, U.S., almost dividing the state into two parts. The bay is ...
Narrandera: town, south central New South Wales, Australia, on the Murrumbidgee River. Settled in 1863 as a livestock station, it was proclaimed a town in 1880 and given an Aboriginal name ...
narratology: in literary theory, the study of narrative structure. Like structuralism, from which it derived, narratology is based on the idea of a common literary language, or a universal pattern of ...
narrator: one who tells a story. In a work of fiction the narrator determines the story's point of view. If the narrator is a full participant in the story's action, the ...
Narrogin: town, southwestern Western Australia. It developed in the 1880s, when the Great Southern Railway came through the site, and a hotel was erected at the trackside. The settlement grew around ...
narrow-mouthed toad: any amphibian of the family Microhylidae, which includes more than 50 genera and more than 200 species. Narrow-mouthed toads are found in North and South America, Africa, Asia, and Australia. ...
Narses: Byzantine general under Emperor Justinian I; his greatest achievement was the conquest of the Ostrogothic kingdom in Italy for Byzantium.
Narses: king of the Sasanian Empire whose reign (293-302) saw the beginning of 40 years of peace with Rome.
Narsimhapur: town, administrative headquarters of Narsimhapur district, Madhya Pradesh state, central India, on the Singri River. Once called Chhota Gadarwara, the town was renamed Narsinghpur after the Narasimha (the man-lion, an ...