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Phillips curve ... phosphine
Phillips curve
representation of the economic relationship between the rate of unemployment (or the rate of change of unemployment) and the rate of change of money wages. It indicates that wages ...
Phillips Exeter Academy
private, coeducational, college-preparatory school (grades 9-12) in Exeter, N.H., U.S. It was founded as a boys' school in 1781 by John Phillips, a local merchant and uncle of Samuel Phillips, ...
Phillips Petroleum Company
former U.S. petroleum company that merged with Conoco in August 2002 to form ConocoPhillips.
Phillips, Lena Madesin
American lawyer and clubwoman, a moving force in establishing national and international organizations to address the interests and concerns of business and professional women.
Phillips, Stephen
English actor and poet who was briefly successful as a playwright.
Phillips, Wendell
abolitionist crusader whose oratorical eloquence helped fire the antislavery cause during the period leading up to the American Civil War.
Phillips, William D.
American physicist whose experiments using laser light to cool and trap atoms earned him the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1997. He shared the award with Steven Chu and Claude ...
Phillipsia
genus of trilobites (an extinct group of aquatic arthropods) uncommonly found as fossils in Carboniferous and Permian rocks (360,000,000 to 245,000,000 years old) in Europe, North America, and the Far ...
phillipsite
hydrated calcium, sodium, and potassium aluminosilicate mineral in the zeolite family (Ca,Na2,K2)3Al6Si10O32·12H2O. It typically is found as brittle white crystals filling cavities and fissures in basalt and in phonolite lava, ...
Phillpotts, Eden
British novelist, poet, and dramatist especially noted for novels evoking their Devon setting in a manner reminiscent of the style of Thomas Hardy.
Phillpotts, Henry
Church of England bishop of Exeter (from 1830), who represented the conservative High Church wing of the Oxford Movement and emphasized liturgical forms of worship, episcopal government, monastic life, and ...
Philo Judaeus
Greek-speaking Jewish philosopher, the most important representative of Hellenistic Judaism. His writings provide the clearest view of this development of Judaism in the Diaspora. As the first to attempt to ...
Philoctetes
Greek legendary hero who played a decisive part in the final stages of the Trojan War.
Philodemus
Greek poet and Epicurean philosopher who did much to spread Epicureanism to Rome.
Philodendron
approximately 350 species of stout-stemmed, climbing herbs of tropical America, which begin life as vines and then transform into epiphytes (plants that live upon other plants).
Philokalia
(Greek: "Love of the Good, the Beautiful"), prose anthology of Greek Christian monastic texts that was part of a movement for spiritual renewal in Eastern monasticism and Orthodox devotional life ...
Philolaus
philosopher of the Pythagorean school, named after the Greek thinker Pythagoras (fl. c. 530 BC).
philology
a term now rarely used but once applied to the study of language and literature. Nowadays a distinction is usually made between literary and linguistic scholarship, and the term philology, ...
Philombe, Rene
African novelist, poet, playwright, and journalist. The Cameroon Tribune called him "one of the most influential personalities in the new wave of creative writing in Cameroon."
Philopoemen
general of the Achaean League notable for his restoration of Achaean military efficiency.
Philoponus, John
Greek Christian philosopher, theologian, and literary scholar whose writings expressed an independent Christian synthesis of classical Hellenistic thought, which in translation contributed to Syriac and Arabic cultures and to medieval ...
philosophe
any of the literary men, scientists, and thinkers of 18th-century France who were united, in spite of divergent personal views, in their conviction of the supremacy and efficacy of human ...
philosophical anthropology
discipline that seeks to unify the several empirical investigations of human nature in an effort to understand individuals as both creatures of their environment and creators of their own values.
philosophical radical
adherent of the utilitarian political philosophy that stemmed from the 18th- and 19th-century English jurist Jeremy Bentham and culminated in the doctrine of the 19th-century English philosopher John Stuart Mill. ...
philosophy
(from Greek, by way of Latin, philosophia, "love of wisdom") the critical examination of the grounds for fundamental beliefs and an analysis of the basic concepts employed ...
philosophy, Western
history of Western philosophy from its development among the ancient Greeks to the present.
Philostorgius
Byzantine historian, partisan of Arianism, a Christian heresy asserting the inferiority of Christ to God the Father. His church history, preserved in part, was the most extensive collection of Arian ...
Philostratus The Lemnian
ancient Greek writer, son-in-law of Flavius Philostratus. He was the author of a letter to Aspasius of Ravenna and of the first series of the Imagines in two books, discussing ...
Philostratus, Flavius, The Athenian
ancient Greek writer who studied at Athens and some time after 202 entered the circle of the philosophical Syrian empress of Rome, Julia Domna. On her death he settled in ...
Philotheus Kokkinos
theologian, monk, and patriarch of Constantinople, a leader of the Byzantine monastic and religious revival in the 14th century. His numerous theological, liturgical, and canonical works received wide circulation not ...
Philoxenus Of Mabbug
Syriac Akhsenaya Syrian bishop, theologian, and classical author. He was a leader of the Jacobite Monophysite church, a heterodox group teaching a single, divine nature in Christ, subsuming his humanity. ...
Phitsanulok
town, north-central Thailand. Phitsanulok lies along the Nan River and the Bangkok-Chiengmai railroad. It is also served by an airport and by a major highway to Sukhothai (west) and Khon ...
phlebitis
inflammation of the wall of a vein. Phlebitis may result from the infection of tissues adjacent to the vein, or it may result from trauma or from a surgical operation ...
phlebothrombosis
formation of a blood clot in a vein that is not inflamed. Inactivity, such as bed rest during convalescence, can lead to the condition, which frequently progresses to thrombophlebitis (q.v.), ...
phloem
tissues in plants that conduct foods made in the leaves to all other parts of the plant. Phloem is composed of various specialized cells called sieve tubes, companion cells, phloem ...
phlogiston
in early chemical theory, hypothetical principle of fire, of which every combustible substance was in part composed. In this view, the phenomena of burning, now called oxidation, was caused by ...
phlogopite
basic aluminosilicate of potassium, magnesium, and iron that is a member of the common mica group. Varieties that contain only small amounts of iron are economically important as electrical insulators. ...
phlox
(genus Phlox), any of about 65 species of plants belonging to the family Polemoniaceae, admired both in gardens and in the wilds for their clustered heads of flowers. All species ...
Phnom Penh
capital and chief city of Cambodia. It lies at the confluence of the Basak (Bassac), Sab, and Mekong river systems, in the south-central part of the country.
phobia
an extreme, irrational fear of a specific object or situation. A phobia is classified as a type of anxiety disorder, since anxiety is the chief symptom experienced by the sufferer. ...
Phobos
the inner and larger of Mars's two moons. It was discovered telescopically with its companion moon, Deimos, by the American astronomer Asaph Hall in 1877 and named for one of ...
Phocaea
ancient Ionian city on the northern promontory of the Gulf of Smyrna, Anatolia (now the Gulf of Izmir, Turkey); it was the mother city of several Greek colonies. The Phocaeans ...
Phocas
Thracian centurion who was Byzantine emperor from 602 to 610.
Phocion
Athenian statesman and general, virtual ruler of Athens between 322 and 318. Formidable in the defense of his city, he nevertheless urged Athens to accommodate itself to the Macedonian Empire.
Phocis
district of ancient central Greece, extending northward from the Gulf of Corinth over the range of Mount Parnassus to the Locrian Mountains, which formed the northern frontier. In the fertile ...
Phocus
in Greek mythology, the son of Aeacus, king of Aegina, and the Nereid Psamathe, who had assumed the likeness of a seal (Greek: phoce) in trying to escape Aeacus' embraces. ...
Phoebe
in Greek mythology, a Titan, daughter of Uranus and Gaea. By Coeus she was the mother of Leto and grandmother of Apollo and Artemis. She was also the mother of ...
Phoebe
midsized irregular moon of Saturn, discovered by the American astronomer William Henry Pickering in 1899 on photographic plates and named for a Titan in Greek mythology.
phoebe
any of three species of New World birds of the family Tyrannidae (order Passeriformes). In North America the best-known species is the Eastern phoebe (Sayornis phoebe), 18 cm (7.5 inches) ...
Phoenicia
ancient region corresponding to modern Lebanon, with adjoining parts of modern Syria and Israel. Its inhabitants, the Phoenicians, were notable merchants, traders, and colonizers of the Mediterranean in the 1st ...
Phoenician alphabet
writing system that developed out of the North Semitic alphabet and was spread over the Mediterranean area by Phoenician traders. It is the probable ancestor of the Greek alphabet and, ...
Phoenician language
Semitic language of the Northern Central (often called Northwestern) group, spoken in ancient times on the coast of Syria and Palestine in Tyre, Sidon, Byblos, and neighbouring towns and in ...
Phoenix
in Greek mythology, son of Amyntor, king of Thessalian Hellas. After a violent quarrel Amyntor cursed him with childlessness, and Phoenix escaped to Peleus (king of the Myrmidons in Thessaly), ...
Phoenix
city, capital (since 1889) of Arizona, U.S., and seat (1871) of Maricopa county, in the south-central part of the state. Phoenix lies along the Salt River, and is situated midway ...
phoenix
in ancient Egypt and in classical antiquity, a fabulous bird associated with the worship of the sun. The Egyptian phoenix was said to be as large as an eagle, with ...
Phoenix Islands
group of coral atolls, part of Kiribati, in the west-central Pacific Ocean, 1,650 miles (2,650 km) southwest of Hawaii. The group comprises Rawaki (Phoenix), Manra (Sydney), McKean, Nikumaroro (Gardner), Birnie, ...
Phoenix Park murders
(May 6, 1882), an assassination in Dublin that involved the stabbing of the British chief secretary of Ireland, Lord Frederick Cavendish, and his under secretary, T.H. Burke. The chief secretary ...
Phoenixville
borough (town), Chester county, southeastern Pennsylvania, U.S., on the Schuylkill River between French and Pickering creeks, 28 miles (45 km) northwest of Philadelphia. The site was originally settled in 1720 ...
phon
unit of loudness level. The loudness level of a sound is a subjective, rather than an objective, measure. To measure loudness, the volume of a 1,000-hertz reference tone is adjusted ...
phoneme
in linguistics, smallest unit of speech distinguishing one word (or word element) from another, as the sound p in "tap," which separates that word from "tab," "tag," and "tan." A ...
phonemics
in linguistics, the study of the phonemes and phonemic system of a language. For linguists who analyze phonological systems wholly in terms of the phoneme, phonemics is coextensive with phonology ...
phonetics
the study of speech sounds and their physiological production and acoustic qualities. It deals with the configurations of the vocal tract used to produce speech sounds (articulatory phonetics), the acoustic ...
phonocardiography
diagnostic technique that creates a graphic record, or phonocardiogram, of the sounds and murmurs produced by the heart and associated great vessels. The phonocardiogram is obtained either by acoustic pickup ...
Phonofilm
system used in the 1920s to provide sound synchronized with motion pictures. A sound track was photographically recorded on the film by a beam of light modulated by the sound ...
phonograph
instrument for reproducing sounds by means of the vibration of a stylus, or needle, following a groove on a rotating disc. A phonograph disc, or record, stores a replica of ...
phonolite
any member of a group of extrusive igneous rocks (lavas) that are rich in nepheline and potash feldspar. The typical phonolite is a fine-grained, compact igneous rock that splits into ...
phonology
study of the sound patterns that occur within languages. Some linguists include phonetics, the study of the production and description of speech sounds, within the study of phonology.
phonon
in solid-state physics, quantum of lattice vibrational energy. In analogy to a photon (a quantum of light), the phonon can be viewed as a wave packet with particle-like properties. Its ...
phorate
generically, a powerful pesticide effective against insects, mites, and nematodes. It is a systemic insecticide that acts by inhibiting cholinesterases, enzymes involved in transmitting nerve impulses. Chemically, it is an ...
phoresy
transportation of one organism by another, more mobile one. The term is not applied to a parasitic relationship, but minute parasites may use this means of transport to colonize new ...
Phormion
brilliant Athenian admiral who won several engagements before and during the Peloponnesian War.
phormium
a plant of the family agave (Agavaceae), and its fibre, belonging to the leaf fibre group. The plant is native to New Zealand, where the fibre, sometimes called New Zealand ...
phosgene
a colourless, chemically reactive, highly toxic gas having an odour like that of musty hay, used in making organic chemicals, dyestuffs, polycarbonate resins, and isocyanates for making polyurethane resins. It ...
phosphate
any of numerous chemical compounds related to phosphoric acid (H3PO4). One group of these derivatives is composed of salts containing the phosphate ion (PO43-), the hydrogen phosphate ion (HPO42-), or ...
phosphate mineral
any of a group of naturally occurring inorganic salts of phosphoric acid, H3(PO4). More than 200 species of phosphate minerals are recognized, and structurally they all have isolated (PO4) tetrahedral ...
phosphine
a colourless, flammable, extremely toxic gas, with a disagreeable, garlic-like odour. Phosphine is formed by the action of a strong base or hot water on white phosphorus or by the ...