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Osroene: ancient kingdom in northwestern Mesopotamia, located between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers and lying across the modern frontier of Turkey and Syria. Its capital was Edessa (modern Urfa, Tur.). The ...
Oss: gemeente (commune), Noord-Brabant provincie, south-central Netherlands, east-northeast of 's Hertogenbosch and about 3 miles (5 km) south of the Maas (Meuse) River. A food-processing town noted for margarine and meat ...
Ossa: mountain massif, nomos (department) of Larissa, eastern Thessaly, Greece. It lies on the Gulf of Thermai and is separated on the north from the Olympus massif by the Vale of ...
Ossa, Mount: highest peak in Tasmania, Australia, rising to 5,305 feet (1,617 m), in the central highlands. At the northern end of the rugged Ducane Range, Mount Ossa, along with several other ...
Osservatore romano, L': daily newspaper published in Vatican City, one of the most influential papers in Italy and the de facto voice of the Holy See.
Ossetic language: eastern Iranian language spoken in the northern Caucasus by the Ossetes. There are two major dialects: (1) eastern, called Iron, and (2) western, called Digor. The majority of the Ossetes ...
Ossian: the Irish warrior-poet of the Fenian cycle of hero tales about Finn MacCumhaill (MacCool) and his war band, the Fianna Eireann. The name Ossian became known throughout Europe in 1762, ...
Ossianic ballads: Irish lyric and narrative poems dealing with the legends of Finn MacCumhaill and his war band. They are named for Oisin (Ossian), the chief bard of the Fenian cycle. These ...
Ossietzky, Carl von: German journalist and pacifist, winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace for 1935.
Ossining: village in the town (township) of Ossining, Westchester county, southeastern New York, U.S., on the east bank of the Hudson River. The site was part of a land grant made ...
Ossory: an ancient kingdom of Ireland that won for itself a semi-independent position as a state within the kingdom of Leinster, probably in the 1st century AD. In the 9th century ...
Ostade, Adriaen van: painter and printmaker of the Baroque period known for his genre pictures of Dutch peasant life. He also did religious subjects, portraits, and landscapes. Van Ostade was a prolific artist, ...
Ostade, Isack van: Dutch genre and landscape painter of the Baroque period, especially noted for his winter scenes and depictions of peasants and travelers at rustic inns.
Ostaijen, Paul van: Flemish man of letters whose avant-garde Expressionist poetry and writings on literature and art were influential in Belgium and The Netherlands.
ostariophysan: any of about 6,000 species of bony fishes belonging to the superorder Ostariophysi, including the majority of freshwater fishes throughout the world. Familiar representatives of this group are the minnows, ...
Ostend: municipality, West Flanders province, northwestern Belgium. It lies along the North Sea and at the end of the Ghent-Brugge Canal. A fishing village (originally Oostende-ter-Streepe) since the 9th century, it ...
Ostend Company: trading company that operated from the Austrian Netherlands from 1719 to 1731. Founded by the Holy Roman emperor Charles VI, it represented an attempt to cash in on the riches ...
Ostend Manifesto: (Oct. 18, 1854), communication from three U.S. diplomats to Secretary of State William L. Marcy, advocating U.S. seizure of Cuba from Spain; the incident marked the high point of the ...
osteoarthritis: a disorder of the joints, characterized by progressive deterioration of the articular cartilage. It is the most common joint disease, affecting more than 80 percent of those who reach the ...
osteoblast: large cell responsible for the synthesis of new bone during both initial formation and later remodeling of bone. Osteoblasts form a closely packed sheet on the surface of the bone, ...
osteochondroma: solitary benign tumour that consists partly of cartilage and partly of bone. Osteochondromas are common and may develop following trauma (injury) or may have a hereditary basis. At least one ...
osteochondrosis: poorly understood but relatively common orthopedic disorder of children in which the epiphysis (growing end) of a bone dies and then is gradually replaced over a period of years. The ...
osteoclast: large, multinucleate cell responsible for the dissolution and absorption of bone during the process of bone remodeling, or renewal. Bone is a dynamic tissue, continuously being broken down and restructured ...
osteoclastoma: a bone tumour found predominantly in the knee region, but also occurring in the wrist, hand, foot, arm, and pelvis. The giant cells (large, often multinucleated cells) found in these ...
osteocyte: a cell that lies within the substance of fully formed bone. It occupies a small chamber called a lacuna, contained in the calcified matrix of bone. Osteocytes derive from osteoblasts, ...
Osteodontokeratic tool industry: assemblage of fossilized animal bones found at Taung by Raymond Arthur Dart about 200 miles (320 km) from Johannesburg, S.Af., where the first specimen of Australopithecus africanus was found, and ...
osteogenesis imperfecta: hereditary disease of connective tissue that involves bone, sclera, inner ear, ligamentous structures, and skin. Several syndromes have been described, but they probably represent different degrees of expression of the ...
osteoglossomorph: any member of the superorder Osteoglossomorpha, a group of morphologically and biologically diverse primitive fishes primarily found in freshwaters, although a few species enter slightly brackish water. Their relationship with ...
Osteolepis: extinct genus of lobe-finned fish generally regarded as very primitive, although it survived into later Devonian time (the Devonian Period lasted from 408 to 360 million years ago) and was ...
osteoma: a small mass of new bone found mainly on bones of the skull. Osteomas usually appear in late childhood or young adulthood; they are self-limiting and usually single. They do ...
osteomalacia: progressive loss of calcium and phosphorus from the bones in adult humans. The condition may occur after several pregnancies or in old age, resulting in softening and curving of the ...
osteomyelitis: infection of bone tissue. The condition is most commonly caused by the infectious organism Staphylococcus aureus, which reaches the bone via the bloodstream or by extension from ...
osteon: the chief structural unit of compact bone, consisting of lamellae, or layers of bone, surrounding a long hollow passageway, the haversian canal. Osteons are quite evident in a cross section ...
osteonecrosis: death of bone tissue that may result from infection, as in osteomyelitis, or deprivation of blood supply, as in fracture, dislocation, caisson disease, or radiation sickness. In all cases blood ...
osteopathy: health care profession that emphasizes the relationship between the musculoskeletal structure and organ function. Osteopathic physicians develop skill in recognizing and correcting structural problems through manipulative therapy and other treatments.
osteoporosis: disease characterized by the thinning of bones, with a consequent tendency to sustain fractures from minor stresses. The disorder is most common in women over the age of 50 and ...
osteosarcoma: the most common malignant tumour of bone. It is found more often in males than in females, occurs mostly under the age of 30, and affects mainly the large long ...
Osterdalen: narrow valley, Hedmark fylke (county), southeastern Norway. It extends in a general north-south direction from the eastern flanks of the Dovre Mountains and is approximately 75 miles (120 km) long. ...
Ostergotland: lan (county) of southeastern Sweden, between Vattern (lake) and the Baltic Sea. It has a land area of 4,078 square miles (10,582 square km) and consists of the landskap (province) ...
Osterman, Andrey Ivanovich, Graf: statesman who dominated the conduct of Russia's foreign affairs from 1725 to 1740.
Ostermeyer, Micheline: French athlete who won gold medals in the shot put and the discus throw at the 1948 Olympic Games in London. She was also an accomplished concert pianist.
Osterode: city, Lower Saxony Land (state), central Germany, at the southwestern edge of the Oberharz Mountains. The residence of the dukes of Braunschweig-Grubenhagen in the 14th-15th century, it has many medieval ...
Osterreichische Gallery: art museum established in Belvedere Castle, Vienna, in 1903. The museum includes many works of art that had been in the imperial Austrian private collection. The gallery is organized into ...
Ostersund: town and capital of the lan (county) of Jamtland, northwestern Sweden, on the west shore of Lake Stor. It was founded in 1786 by King Gustav III. It was subordinate, ...
Ostfold: fylke (county), extreme southeastern Norway, extending from Oslo Fjord (west) to the Swedish border (east). Its total area is 1,615 square miles (4,183 square km). The county's hilly landscape, with ...
Ostia: ancient Roman town originally at the mouth of the Tiber River but now about 4 miles (6 km) upstream; the modern seaside resort is about 3 miles (5 km) southwest ...
ostinato: in music, short melodic phrase repeated throughout a composition, sometimes slightly varied or transposed to a different pitch. A rhythmic ostinato is a short, constantly repeated rhythmic pattern. Ostinatos appear ...
Ostlandet: geographic region of Norway, embracing the fylker (counties) of Ostfold, Akershus, Hedmark, Oppland, Buskerud, Vestfold, Telemark, and Oslo. Encompassing the southeastern portion of the country, it ranges from the highest ...
ostomy: (from Latin ostium, "mouth"), any procedure in which an artificial stoma, or opening, is surgically created; the term is also used for the opening itself. Usually ostomies ...
ostracism: political practice in ancient Athens whereby a prominent citizen who threatened the stability of the state could be banished without bringing any charge against him. (A similar device existed at ...
ostracoderm: any of an extinct group of small, fishlike Paleozoic vertebrates, members of which belonged to several orders particularly abundant in Late Silurian and Early Devonian formations (387 to 421 million ...
ostracon: potshard or limestone flake used in antiquity, especially by the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Hebrews, as a surface for drawings or sketches, or as an alternative to papyrus for writing ...
Ostrava: city, capital of Severomoravsky kraj (region), eastern Czech Republic. It lies between the Ostravice and Oder rivers above their confluence at the southern edge of the Upper Silesian coalfield. It ...
ostrich: flightless bird found only in open country of Africa. The largest living bird, an adult male may be 2.75 metres (about 9 feet) tall-almost half of its height is neck-and ...
Ostrogorsky, Moisey: Belorussian political scientist known for his pioneering study of comparative party organization.
Ostrogoth: member of a division of the Goths (see Goth); the Ostrogoths developed an empire north of the Black Sea in the 3rd century AD and, in the late 5th century, ...
Ostroleka: city, Mazowieckie wojewodztwo (province), northeastern Poland. It lies on the eastern bank of the Narew River, 20 miles (32 km) southwest of Lomza city.
Ostrovsky, Aleksandr Nikolayevich: Russian dramatist who is generally considered the greatest representative of the Russian realistic period.
Ostrow Wielkopolski: city, Wielkopolskie wojewodztwo (province), west-central Poland. A rail junction and industrial town, it produces machine tools and railroad cars, lumber, ceramics, and textiles. The city, which lies ...
Ostrowiec Swietokrzyski: city, Swietokrzyskie wojewodztwo (province), southeastern Poland. The city lies along the Kamienna River, a tributary of the Vistula, and is situated in the Polish Uplands just north ...
Ostwald, Wilhelm: German chemist who almost single-handedly organized physical chemistry into a nearly independent branch of chemistry. He won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1909 for his work on catalysis, chemical ...
Ostwald, Wolfgang: German chemist who devoted his life as a teacher, researcher, and editor to the advancement of colloid chemistry.
Osumi: first Earth satellite orbited by Japan. It was launched on Feb. 11, 1970, from Kagoshima Space Center on Kyushu and was named for the peninsula on which the centre is ...
Osumi Archipelago: archipelago, Kagoshima ken (prefecture), Japan, lying south of the Osumi Peninsula of Kyushu. It consists of Tanega Island and Yaku Island and several smaller isles, with a combined area of ...
Osun: state, western Nigeria. Osun state was created in 1991 from the eastern third of Oyo state. It is bounded by the states of Kwara on the northeast, Ondo on the ...
Osuna: town, Seville provincia, in the comunidad autonoma ("autonomous community") of Andalusia, southern Spain. Osuna lies at the foot of a hill at the edge of an extensive plain, east-southeast of ...
Oswald Of York, Saint: Anglo-Saxon archbishop of Danish parentage who was a leading figure in the 10th-century movement of monastic and feudalistic reforms.
Oswald, Lee Harvey: accused assassin of U.S. President John F. Kennedy in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963. He himself was fatally shot two days later by Jack Ruby (1911-67) in the Dallas County ...
Oswald, Saint: Anglo-Saxon king of Northumbria from 633 to 642 who introduced Celtic Christian missionaries to his kingdom and gained ascendancy over most of England.
Oswego: port city, seat (1816) of Oswego county, north-central New York, U.S. It lies along Lake Ontario at the mouth of the Oswego River, 35 miles (56 km) northwest of Syracuse. ...
Oswego: county, north-central New York state, U.S., bordered by Lake Ontario to the northwest and the Oswego and Oneida rivers and Oneida Lake to the south. Other waterways include the Salmon ...
Oswestry: town and borough (district), administrative and historic county of Shropshire, England, bordered on three sides by Wales. Oswestry lies in a scenic setting in the foothills of the Berwyn Mountains ...
Oswiecim: city, Malopolskie wojewodztwo (province), southern Poland. It lies at the confluence of the Vistula and Sola rivers. A rail junction and industrial centre, the town became known ...
Oswiu: Anglo-Saxon king of Northumbria from 655 to 670.
Ota: city, Gumma ken (prefecture), Honshu, Japan, on the Tone River. During the Tokugawa period (1603-1867) it was a market town, a post town on the Nikko Highway, and a temple ...
Otago: local government region, southeastern South Island, New Zealand, encompassing the Otago Mountains, a fragmented schist plateau. The region stretches westward across South Island from the south Pacific Ocean to include ...