floodplain in southwestern Brazil that extends into northeast Paraguay and southeast Brazil and is the world's largest wetland. Most of the Pantanal's 39,000-square-mile (101,00-square kilometre) area lies within northwestern Mato ...
island in the Alor group,Nusa Tenggara Timur provinsi ("province"), Indonesia. Pantar lies about 45 miles (72 km) north of Timor, across the Ombai Strait. It is 30 miles (50 ...
Italian island in the Mediterranean Sea between Sicily and Tunisia; it forms part of Trapani provincia, Sicily. Of volcanic origin, it rises to 2,743 feet (836 m) at the extinct ...
the doctrine that the universe conceived of as a whole is God and, conversely, that there is no God but the combined substance, forces, and laws that are manifested in ...
building in Paris that was begun about 1757 by the architect Jacques-Germain Soufflot as the Church of Sainte-Genevieve to replace a much older church of that name on the same ...
building in Rome that was begun in 27 BC by the statesman Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, probably as a building of the ordinary classical temple type-rectangular with a gabled roof supported ...
a method of cooling, used by many mammals, most birds, and some reptiles, accomplished by means of the evaporation of water from internal body surfaces. As the animal's body temperature ...
instrument for duplicating a motion or copying a geometric shape to a reduced or enlarged scale. It consists of an assemblage of rigid bars adjustably joined by pin joints; as ...
water-soluble vitamin essential in animal metabolism. Pantothenic acid, a growth-promoting substance for yeast and certain bacteria, appears to be synthesized by bacteria in the intestines of the higher animals. It ...
a Malaysian poetic form in French and English. The pantoum consists of a series of quatrains rhyming abab in which the second and fourth lines of a quatrain recur as ...
river in Veracruz estado ("state"), east-central Mexico. Formed by the junction of the Moctezuma and Tamuin rivers on the San Luis Potosi-Veracruz state line, the Panuco meanders generally east-northeastward past ...
Polish-born British composer and conductor, who created compositions in a distinctive contemporary Polish style though he worked in a wide variety of genres.
family of songbirds, order Passeriformes, consisting of the parrotbills (see ) and bearded tits, about 19 species of small titmouselike birds found in the thickets of temperate Eurasia.
epic poet from Halicarnassus, on the coast of Asia Minor. The Roman rhetorician Quintilian stated that some later critics regarded Panyassis' work as being second only to Homer. His chief ...
Don Quixote's squire in the novel Don Quixote by Cervantes, a short, pot-bellied peasant whose gross appetite, common sense, and vulgar wit serve as a foil to the mad idealism ...
series of battle tanks fielded by the German army in the 1930s and '40s. The six tanks in the series constituted virtually all of Germany's tank production from 1934 until ...
("armoured division"), a self-contained, combined-arms military unit of the German army, built around and deriving its mission largely from the capabilities of armoured fighting vehicles. A panzer division in World ...
wide-sleeved robe of a style worn by Chinese men and women from the Han dynasty (206 BC-AD 220) to the end of the Ming dynasty (1644). The pao was girdled ...
city in western Shensi sheng (province), China. Situated on the north bank of the Wei River, it has been a strategic and transportation centre since early times, controlling the northern ...
town, eastern Malta, just south of Valletta and adjacent to Tarxien to the southeast. Founded in 1626 by the grand master of the Hospitallers (Knights of Malta), Antoine de Paule, ...
a principal Venetian painter of the Byzantine style in 14th-century Venice. Paolo and his son Giovanni signed a "Coronation of the Virgin" (Frick Collection, New York City) in 1358 that ...
laboratory method of obtaining secretions from the cervix for the examination of cast-off epithelial cells to detect the presence of cancer. The Pap smear, named for Greek-born American physician George ...
(Papago: "Desert People"), North American Indians who traditionally inhabited the desert regions of Arizona and northern Sonora, south of the Pima Indians (see Pima).
enzyme present in the milky juice of the papaya that catalyzes the breakdown of proteins by hydrolysis (addition of a water molecule). Papain is used in biochemical research involving the ...
in Roman Catholic theology, the doctrine that the pope, acting as supreme teacher and under certain conditions, cannot err when he teaches in matters of faith or morals. As an ...
territories of central Italy over which the pope had sovereignty from 756 to 1870. Included were the modern Italian regions of Lazio (Latium), Umbria, and Marche and part of Emilia-Romagna, ...
river in Veracruz estado ("state"), southeastern Mexico. It is formed by the junction of several rivers in Oaxaca estado, near the Veracruz-Oaxaca border, and meanders generally northeastward for 76 miles ...
city, north-central Veracruz estado ("state"), east-central Mexico. Formerly known as Papantla de Hidalgo, the city lies in the hills dividing the Cazones and Tecolutla river basins. Corn (maize), beans, tobacco, ...
poppy family of the order Papaverales, with about 200 species; most of these are herbaceous plants, but the family includes some woody, small trees and shrubs. The family is outstanding ...
the poppy order of flowering plants, belonging to the class known as Magnoliopsida (dicotyledons; characterized by the presence of two seed leaves). The order is composed of about 600 species ...
succulent fruit of a large plant (Carica papaya) of the family Caricaceae that is considered a tree, though its palmlike trunk, up to 8 m (26 feet) tall, is ...
commune, capital of French Polynesia, lying on the northwest coast of Tahiti. A gracious tropical city with tall palms and abundant flowers, Papeete is one of the largest urban centres ...
German statesman and diplomat who played a leading role in dissolving the Weimar Republic and in helping Adolf Hitler to become German chancellor in 1933.
in analytical chemistry, technique for separating dissolved chemical substances by taking advantage of their different rates of migration across sheets of paper. It is an inexpensive but powerful analytical tool ...
art of folding objects out of paper without cutting, pasting, or decorating. Its early history is not known, though it seems to have developed from the older art of folding ...
raw material for paper manufacture that contains vegetable, mineral, or man-made fibres. It forms a matted or felted sheet on a screen when moisture is removed.
(Polistes), any of a worldwide genus of insects of the family Vespidae (order Hymenoptera). A striking-looking wasp, about 16 millimetres long, it has orange antennae, wings, and tarsi; the body ...
any of several small trees belonging to the genus Melaleuca, in the myrtle family (Myrtaceae), characterized by their whitish papery bark. They are native to Australia and nearby islands.
formation of a matted or felted sheet, usually of cellulose fibres, from water suspension on a wire screen. Paper is the basic material used for written communication and the dissemination ...
ancient district of Anatolia adjoining the Black Sea, bounded by Bithynia in the west, Pontus in the east, and Galatia in the south. The Paphlagonians were one of the most ...
town, southwestern Republic of Cyprus. Paphos was also the name of two ancient cities that were the precursors of the modern town. The older ancient city (Greek: Palaipaphos) was located ...
creole language based on Spanish, spoken on the islands of Curacao, Aruba, and Bonaire, in the Caribbean Sea. Papiamento is apparently based on a Spanish pidgin or creole language, with ...
bishop of Hierapolis, Phrygia (now in Turkey), whose work "Explanation of the Sayings of the Lord," although extant only in fragments, provides important apostolic oral source accounts of the history ...
repulped paper that has been mixed with glue or paste so that it can be molded. The art of making articles of papier-mache, beautifully decorated in Oriental motifs and handsomely ...
any of a group of viruses belonging to the family Papillomaviridae that infect birds and mammals, causing warts (papillomas) and other benign tumours in humans. They are small polygonal viruses ...
breed of toy dog known from the 16th century, when it was called a dwarf spaniel. A fashionable dog, it was favoured by Madame de Pompadour and Marie Antoinette, and ...
French-born British physicist who invented the pressure cooker and suggested the first cylinder and piston steam engine. Though his design was not practical, it was improved by others and led ...
politician who was the leader of the French-Canadians in Lower Canada (now in Quebec) in the period preceding an unsuccessful revolt against the British government in 1837.
journalist, critic, poet, and novelist, one of the most outspoken and controversial Italian literary figures of the early and mid-20th century. He was influential first as a fiercely iconoclastic editor ...
Roman jurist who posthumously became the definitive authority on Roman law, possibly because his moral high-mindedness was congenial to the worldview of the Christian rulers of the postclassical empire.
American theatrical producer and director, founder of the New York Shakespeare Festival and the Public Theatre. He was a major innovative force in the American theatre in the second half ...
acute, infectious, febrile disease caused by a phlebovirus (family Bunyaviridae) and producing temporary incapacitation. It is transmitted to humans by the bloodsucking female sand fly (notably Phlebotomus ...
the most important mathematical author writing in Greek during the later Roman Empire, known for his Synagoge ("Collection"), a voluminous account of the most important work done ...
spice made from the pods of Capsicum annuum, an annual shrub belonging to the nightshade family, Solanaceae, and native to tropical areas of the Western Hemisphere, including Mexico, Central America, ...
propinsi (province), Indonesia, the western half of the island of New Guinea and its offshore islands-including the individual islands of Yapen, Adi, Waigeo, Batanta, Kofiau, Salawati, Misool, and Yos Sudarsa ...
island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It encompasses the eastern half of the island of New Guinea (the western half, Irian Jaya, belonging to Indonesia) and its offshore islands ...
inlet of the Coral Sea (southwestern Pacific) indenting the southeast coast of the island of New Guinea. About 225 miles (360 km) wide, it extends 95 miles (150 km) into ...
group of languages spoken in an area centred upon New Guinea and extending from the islands of Alor, Halmahera, and Timor in the west to the Santa Cruz Archipelago in ...
the care, reading, and interpretation of ancient documents written on papyrus, which is of prime importance in Egyptian, Middle Eastern, and Classical archaeology.
writing material of ancient times and also the plant from which it was derived, Cyperus papyrus (family Cyperaceae), also called paper plant. The papyrus plant was long-cultivated in the Nile ...
in Egyptian religion, amulet that conveyed freshness, youth, vigour, and the continuance of life to its wearer. The amulet, made of glazed ware or various types of stone, was shaped ...
estado (state) of northern Brazil through which the lower Amazon River flows to the sea. It is bounded to the north by Guyana, Suriname, and the Brazilian state of Amapa, ...
channel of the Amazon delta that passes to the south and east of Marajo Island, in northeastern Para state, northern Brazil. It carries a small part of the discharge of ...
a vitamin-like substance and a growth factor required by several types of microorganisms. In bacteria, PABA is used in the synthesis of the vitamin folic acid. The drug sulfanilamide is ...
city, central Luzon, Philippines, on the southeastern shore of Manila Bay. Its site was occupied by small vegetable farms until the mid-20th century, when expanding urbanization transformed the town into ...
