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Ocean City ... Odonata
Ocean City
resort, city, Cape May county, southeastern New Jersey, U.S., on a barrier island between Great Egg Harbor (bridged to Somers Point and Longport) and the Atlantic Ocean, 12 miles (19 ...
Ocean City
resort town, Worcester county, southeastern Maryland, U.S. Ocean City lies along a 10-mile (16-km) barrier beach between a chain of bays (Sinepuxent, Isle of Wight, and Assawoman) and the Atlantic ...
ocean current
horizontal and vertical circulation system of ocean waters produced by gravity, wind friction, and water density variation in different parts of the ocean.
ocean liner
one of the two principal types of merchant ship as classified by operating method; the other is the tramp steamer. A liner operates on a regular schedule of designated ports, ...
ocean perch
economically important food fish of the family Scorpaenidae, also known as the redfish (q.v.).
ocean ranching
the rearing of fish and shellfish under artificially controlled conditions to restock the sea. See aquaculture.
Ocean Springs
resort city, Jackson county, southeastern Mississippi, U.S., on Biloxi Bay across from Biloxi. It developed around the site of Old Biloxi, where the explorer Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville established Fort ...
oceanarium
saltwater aquarium for displaying marine animals and plants, particularly oceanic, or pelagic, fishes and mammals. It serves as a centre for public entertainment and education and scientific study. Most oceanariums ...
Oceania
collective name for the islands scattered throughout most of the Pacific Ocean. The term, in its widest sense, embraces the entire insular region between Asia and the Americas. A more ...
Oceanic languages
widespread, highly varied, and controversial language group of the Austronesian language family. Spoken on the islands of Oceania from New Guinea to Hawaii to Easter Island, certain of these languages ...
Oceanic literature
the traditional oral and written literatures of the indigenous people of Oceania, in particular of Melanesia, Polynesia, Micronesia, and Australia. While this article addresses the influence of Western literary forms, ...
oceanic plateau
large submarine elevation rising sharply at least 200 m (660 feet) above the surrounding deep-sea floor and characterized principally by an extensive, relatively flat or gently tilted summit. Most oceanic ...
oceanic ridge
continuous submarine mountain chain extending approximately 80,000 km (50,000 miles) through all the world's oceans. Ridges separate the oceans into distinct basins and may or may not be seismically active.
oceanic trough
an elongate depression in the seafloor that is characteristically shallower, shorter, narrower, and topographically gentler than oceanic trenches. Maximal depths of oceanic troughs range between 2,300 m (7,500 feet) in ...
oceanography
scientific discipline concerned with all aspects of the world's oceans and seas, including their physical and chemical properties, their origin and geologic framework, and the life forms that inhabit the ...
Oceanside
city, San Diego county, southern California, U.S. Situated about 35 miles (55 km) north of San Diego, Oceanside lies along the Pacific coast, at the mouth of the San Luis ...
Oceanus
in Greek mythology, the river that flowed around the Earth (conceived as flat). Beyond it, to the west, were the sunless land of the Cimmerii, the country of dreams, and ...
ocelot
spotted cat of the New World, found in lowland areas from Texas southward to northern Argentina. The short, smooth fur is patterned with elongated, black-edged spots that are arranged in ...
Ochino, Bernardino
Protestant convert from Roman Catholicism who became an itinerant Reformer and influenced other radical Reformers by his controversial anti-Catholic views.
Ochnaceae
the most primitive family of the tea order (Theales), comprising some 30 genera and 430 species of tropical trees and shrubs, with a few genera of herbs. Many species are ...
Ochoa, Ellen
American engineer and the first Hispanic female astronaut.
Ochoa, Severo
biochemist and molecular biologist who received (with the American biochemist Arthur Kornberg) the 1959 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for discovery of an enzyme in bacteria that enabled him ...
Ochoan Stage
post-Guadalupian time of deposition of the Upper Permian Series of rock strata in the United States, characterized by the development of extensive evaporite deposits (the Permian Period lasted from about ...
Ochs, Adolph Simon
American newspaper publisher under whose ownership (from 1896) The New York Times became one of the world's outstanding newspapers. Despising "yellow [sensational] journalism," he emphasized comprehensive and ...
Ochs, Peter
Swiss revolutionary who wrote most of the constitution of the unitary Helvetic Republic (1798).
Ochs, Phil
American folksinger and songwriter best remembered for the protest songs he wrote in the 1960s on topics ranging from the Vietnam War to civil rights.
Ochsenbein, Ulrich
Swiss politician and military leader who headed the confederation government during the Sonderbund War (1847) and presided over the constitutional reform committee of 1848.
Ockeghem, Jean d'
composer of sacred and secular music, one of the great masters of the Franco-Flemish style that dominated European music of the Renaissance.
Ockham's razor
principle stated by William of Ockham (1285-1347/49), a scholastic, that Pluralitas non est ponenda sine necessitate; "Plurality should not be posited without necessity." The principle gives precedence to simplicity; of ...
Ockham, William of
Franciscan philosopher, theologian, and political writer, a late scholastic thinker regarded as the founder of a form of nominalism-the school of thought that denies that universal concepts such as "father" ...
Ocoee River
river rising in the Blue Ridge Mountains, 9 mi (14 km) southeast of Blue Ridge city, Ga., U.S., and flowing northwest through Fannin County into Tennessee, past Copperhill, through Polk ...
Oconee
county, extreme northwestern South Carolina, U.S. It is bordered by North Carolina to the north and Georgia to the west. Its most northerly portion lies within the rugged Blue Ridge ...
Oconto
city, seat (1854) of Oconto county, northeastern Wisconsin, U.S. It lies on the western shore of Green Bay, at the mouth of the Oconto River, about 30 miles (50 km) ...
Ocotal
city, northwestern Nicaragua. It lies on a sandy plain near the Cordillera Entre Rios and the Coco River, at an elevation of 1,987 feet (606 m). Ocotal serves as a ...
ocotillo
flowering spiny shrub characteristic of rocky deserts from western Texas to southern California and southward into Mexico. It is a member of the candlewood family (Fouquieriaceae), which belongs to the ...
Ocotlan
city, east-central Jalisco estado ("state"), west-central Mexico. It lies near the northeastern shore of Lake Chapala, at the confluence of the Zula (or Atotonilco) and Santiago rivers, and is most ...
octahedrite
any iron meteorite containing between 6 and 11 percent nickel and having an eight-sided crystal structure. Etching a polished surface brings out an unusual design called the Widmanstatten pattern, which ...
octane number
measure of the ability of a fuel to resist knocking when ignited in a mixture with air in the cylinder of an internal-combustion engine. The octane number is determined by ...
octave
in music, an interval whose higher note has a sound-wave frequency of vibration double that of its lower note. Thus, the note a vibrates at 220 hertz [cycles per second], ...
octave species
in early Greek music theory, any of the various arrangements of tones (T) and semitones (S) within an octave (series of eight consecutive notes) in the scale system. The basic ...
octaves, law of
in chemistry, the generalization made by the English chemist J.A.R. Newlands in 1865 that, if the chemical elements are arranged according to increasing atomic weight, those with similar physical and ...
Octavia
full sister of Octavian (later the emperor Augustus) and wife of Mark Antony.
octet
in chemistry, the eight-electron arrangement in the outer electron shell of the noble-gas atoms. This structure is held responsible for the relative inertness of the noble gases and the chemical ...
October
10th month of the Gregorian calendar. Its name is derived from octo, Latin for "eight," an indication of its position in the early Roman calendar. See month ...
October Manifesto
(Oct. 30 [Oct. 17, Old Style], 1905), in Russian history, document issued by the emperor Nicholas II that in effect marked the end of unlimited autocracy in Russia and ushered ...
October Revolution
(Oct. 24-25 [Nov. 6-7, New Style], 1917), the second and last major phase of the Russian Revolution of 1917, in which the Bolshevik Party seized power in Russia, inaugurating the ...
Octobrist
17, member of a conservative-liberal Russian political party whose program of moderate constitutionalism called for the fulfillment of the emperor Nicholas II's October Manifesto (q.v.). Founded in November 1905, the ...
octopus
in general, any eight-armed cephalopod (octopod) mollusk of the order Octopoda; the true octopuses are members of the genus Octopus, a large group of widely distributed, shallow-water cephalopods. (See cephalopod.)
octroi
tax levied by a local political unit, normally the commune or municipal authority, on certain categories of goods as they enter the area. The tax was first instituted in Italy ...
Oculi, Okello
Ugandan novelist, poet, and chronicler of African rural village life. His writing is filled with authentic snatches of conversation, proverbs, and folk wisdom that confirm African values and denounce European ...
oculus
(Latin: "eye"), in architecture, any of several structural elements resembling an eye. A small window that is circular or oval in shape, such as an oeil-de-boeuf window (q.v.), is an ...
Oda Nobunaga
Japanese warrior, member of the Fujiwara family, who overthrew the Ashikaga shogunate and ended a long period of feudal wars by unifying half of Japan's provinces under his rule. As ...
Odaenathus, Septimius
prince of the Roman colony of Palmyra (q.v.), in what is now Syria, who prevented the Sasanian Persians from permanently conquering the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire.
Odantapuri
in ancient times a celebrated Buddhist centre of learning (vihara) in India, identified with modern Bihar town in the Patna district of Bihar state. It was founded in the 7th ...
Odawara
city, southwestern Kanagawa ken (prefecture), east-central Honshu, Japan. It is located on the coast of Sagami Bay, between the Sakawa and Haya rivers, about 28 miles (45 ...
ode
ceremonious poem on an occasion of public or private dignity in which personal emotion and general meditation are united. The Greek word ode, which has been accepted in most modern ...
Odendaalsrus
town and mining centre of the Free State goldfields, north-central Free State province, South Africa, at 4,411 ft (1,344 m) above sea level. Although it obtained municipal status in 1912, ...
Odense
city, northern Funen Island, Denmark, on the Odense River. The site was sacred in pagan times as the vi, or sanctuary, of Odin, the Norse god of ...
Odenwald
wooded upland region in Germany, about 50 mi (80 km) long and 25 mi wide, situated mainly in Hesse Land (state) with small portions extending into the states of Bavaria ...
Oder River
river of east-central Europe. It is one of the most significant rivers in the catchment basin of the Baltic Sea, second only to the Vistula in discharge and length. For ...
Oder-Havel Canal
German waterway northeast of Berlin, linking the Havel and Oder rivers. It is 52 mi (83 km) long, 108 ft (33 m) wide, and 6 12 ft deep, and is ...
Oder-Neisse Line
Polish-German border devised by the Allied powers at the end of World War II; it transferred a large section of German territory to Poland and was a matter of contention ...
Odessa
oblast (province) in southwestern Ukraine. The oblast is bordered by the Black Sea on the east and southeast, by Moldova on the west, and by the Romanian frontier on the ...
Odessa
seaport and administrative centre of Odessa oblast (province), southwestern Ukraine. It stands on a shallow indentation of the Black Sea coast at a point approximately 19 miles (31 km) north ...
Odessa
(German: "Organization of Former SS Members"), clandestine escape organization of the SS (q.v.) underground, founded probably in early 1947 in Germany. A large organizational network was set up to help ...
Odessa
city, seat (1891) of Ector county and also partly in Midland county, western Texas, U.S. It lies on the southern High Plains, just southwest of Midland. The site was presumably ...
Odessa Meteor Crater
shallow, cone-shaped impact crater in the High Plains just southwest of Odessa, Texas, U.S., produced by a meteorite. It is about 17 feet (5 metres) deep and 560 feet (170 ...
Odets, Clifford
leading dramatist of the theatre of social protest in the United States during the 1930s. His important affiliation with the celebrated Group Theatre contributed to that company's considerable influence on ...
odeum
(Latin: "concert hall," from Greek oideion, "school of music"), comparatively small theatre of ancient Greece and Rome, in which musicians and orators performed and competed. It has been suggested that ...
Odienne
town, northwestern Cote d'Ivoire, at the intersection of roads from Mali, Guinea, and the Ivorian towns of Korhogo and Man. A traditional trading centre (yams, cassava, cattle, and sheep) among ...
Odin
one of the principal gods in Norse mythology. His exact nature and role, however, are difficult to determine because of the complex picture of him given by the wealth of ...
Odinga, Oginga
African nationalist politician who was a leader in the opposition against the single-party rule of Jomo Kenyatta and his successor Daniel arap Moi.
Odo Of Bayeux
half brother of William the Conqueror and bishop of Bayeux, Normandy. He probably commissioned the famed Bayeux tapestry, which pictures the Norman Conquest of England, for the dedication of his ...
Odo Of Cluny, Saint
second abbot of Cluny (France), who gained for Cluniac monasteries exemption from all but papal authority and whom Pope John XI authorized to reform monasteries in Gaul and Italy, thereby ...
Odoacer
first barbarian king of Italy. The date on which he assumed power, 476, is traditionally considered the end of the Western Roman Empire.
Odonata
insect order comprising the dragonflies (suborder Anisoptera) and the damselflies (suborder Zygoptera). The adults are easily recognized by their two pairs of narrow, transparent wings, sloping thorax, and long, usually ...