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senescence ... Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, Kingdom of

senescence: the deterioration of bodily functions that accompanies aging (q.v.) in a living organism. In addition to the process of aging, the term senescence denotes the state or condition of old ...
seneschal: in medieval and early modern France, a steward or principal administrator in a royal or noble household. As time went on, the office declined in importance and was often equivalent ...
Senfl, Ludwig: Swiss composer, considered the most important German-speaking master of his time.
Senghor, Lopold: poet, teacher, and statesman, first president of Senegal, and a major proponent of the concept of Negritude.
Senglea: town, one of the Three Cities (the others being Cospicua and Vittoriosa) of eastern Malta. Senglea lies on a small, narrow peninsula between French Creek to the west and Dockyard ...
Senigallia: town and episcopal see, Ancona provincia, Marche regione, central Italy. Senigallia lies along the Adriatic Sea at the mouth of the Misa River. Founded by the Senonian Gauls in the ...
senior citizen: elderly, or aged, person, especially one of more than 60 or 65 years of age. See old age.
Senior, Nassau William: British classical economist who influenced the political and economic policies of his day.
Senlis: town, Oise departement, Picardie region, northern France. It lies along the Nonette River, which is a tributary of the Oise, 32 miles (51 km) north-northeast of Paris, in a forested ...
senna: any of several plants, especially of the genus Cassia, in the pea family (Fabaceae), mostly of subtropical and tropical regions. Many are used medicinally; some yield tanbark used in preparing ...
Sennacherib: king of Assyria (705/704-681 BC), son of Sargon II. He made Nineveh his capital, building a new palace, extending and beautifying the city, and erecting inner and outer city walls ...
Senneh rug: handwoven floor covering made by Kurds who live in or around the town of Senneh (now more properly Sanandaj) in western Iran. The pile rugs and kilims of Senneh are ...
Senneterre: town, Abitibi-Temiscamingue region, southwestern Quebec province, Canada, on the Bell River south of Parent Lake. Founded as a trading post in 1914, it was called Nottaway, after the river of ...
Sennett, Mack: creator of the Keystone Kops and the father of American slapstick comedy in motion pictures. A master of comic timing and effective editing, Sennett was a dominant figure in the ...
Senoa, August: Croatian novelist, critic, editor, poet, and dramatist who urged the modernization and improvement of Croatian literature and led its transition from Romanticism to Realism.
Senoi: Veddoid people found in the Malay Peninsula and in small groups along the coastal plains of eastern Sumatra, Indonesia. In the early 1980s they were estimated to number about 18,000. ...
Senoic languages: subbranch of the Aslian branch of the Mon-Khmer language family, itself a part of the Austroasiatic stock. The main languages, Semai and Temiar, are spoken in the Main Range of ...
Senones: either of two ancient Celtic tribes, or perhaps two divisions of the same people, one living in Gaul, the other in Italy. The Gallic Senones lived in the area that ...
senryu: a three-line unrhymed Japanese poem structurally similar to a haiku but treating human nature usually in an ironic or satiric vein. It is also unlike haiku in that it usually ...
Sens: town, Yonne departement, Bourgogne region, north-central France, southeast of Paris. The Old Town, situated on the right (eastern) bank of the Yonne River, is surrounded by shady boulevards and promenades ...
sensation: in neurology and psychology, any concrete, conscious experience resulting from stimulation of a specific sense organ, sensory nerve, or sensory area in the brain. The word is used in a ...
sensationalism: in epistemology and psychology, a form of Empiricism that limits experience as a source of knowledge to sensation or sense perceptions. Sensationalism is a consequence of the notion of the ...
sense: the mechanism or faculty by which an organism is able to react to changes in its external or internal environment, in particular through the activation of specific parts, which transform ...
sensitive plant: either of two plants, in the pea family (Fabaceae), that respond to touch and other stimulation by closing up their leaves and drooping. The more common plant is Mimosa pudica, ...
sensitivity training: psychological technique in which intensive group discussion and interaction are used to increase individual awareness of self and others; it is practiced in a variety of forms under such names ...
sensory reception: means by which an organism detects and responds to changes in its external or internal environment. Organisms have a variety of sensory structures that respond to different stimuli, such as ...
sensory reception, human: means by which the human organism reacts to changes in the external and internal environments.
Sensuntepeque: city, north-central El Salvador. Sensuntepeque is located in the hills south of the Lempa River valley at an elevation of 3,000 feet (900 metres). A major producer of indigo in ...
sentence: in law, formal judgment of a convicted defendant in a criminal case setting the punishment to be meted out. In civil cases the terms decision, award, and judgment are used.
sentimental comedy: a dramatic genre of the 18th century, denoting plays in which middle-class protagonists triumphantly overcome a series of moral trials. Such comedy aimed at producing tears rather than laughter. Sentimental ...
sentimental novel: broadly, any novel that exploits the reader's capacity for tenderness, compassion, or sympathy to a disproportionate degree by presenting a beclouded or unrealistic view of its subject. In a restricted ...
Senufo: a group of closely related peoples of northern Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) and southeastern Mali. They speak at least four distinct languages (Palaka, Dyimini, and Senari in Cote d'Ivoire and ...
Seoni: city, south-central Madhya Pradesh state, central India. Founded in 1774, it is now a road and rail junction and the chief commercial centre of the Satpura Plateau. Cloth weaving, sawmilling, ...
Seoul: city and capital of the Republic of Korea (South Korea), located in the northwestern part of the country on the Han-gang (Han River) 37 miles (60 kilometres) from the Yellow ...
Sep Szarzynski, Mikolaj: Polish religious poet remembered for writing metaphysical sonnets with inverted word orders.
separation: in law, mutual agreement by a husband and a wife to discontinue living together. A legal separation does not dissolve the marriage contract but merely adjusts the couple's obligations under ...
separation and purification: in chemistry, separation of a substance into its components and the removal of impurities. There are a large number of important applications in fields such as medicine and manufacturing.
Separatist: any of the English Christians in the 16th and 17th centuries who wished to separate from the Church of England and form independent local churches. They were eventually called Congregationalists. ...
Sephardi: (from Hebrew Sefarad, Spain), plural Sephardim, or Sefardim, a member of the Jews, or their descendants, who lived in Spain and Portugal from the Middle Ages until their ...
sepia: dyestuff, coloured brown with a trace of violet, that is obtained from a pigment protectively secreted by cuttlefish or squid. Sepia is obtained from the ink sacs of these invertebrates. ...
Sepik River: one of the largest rivers on the island of New Guinea. It rises on the Victor Emanuel Range of the central highlands, near Telefomin in Papua New Guinea. The Sepik ...
sepiolite: (German: "sea-foam"), a fibrous hydrated magnesium silicate that is opaque and white, grey, or cream in colour. It may resemble the bones of the cuttlefish Sepia, from which the name ...
seppuku: ("belly-cutting"), the honourable method of taking one's own life practiced by men of the samurai (military) class in feudal Japan. The word hara-kiri, though widely known to foreigners, is rarely ...
Sept-Iles: city, regional county municipality (RCM) of Cote-Nord (North Shore) region, eastern Quebec province, Canada. It lies on the north shore of the estuary of the St. Lawrence River and is ...
September: ninth month of the Gregorian calendar. Its name is derived from septem, Latin for "seven," an indication of its position in the early Roman calendar. See month ...
September 11 attacks: series of airline hijackings and suicide attacks committed by 19 militants associated with the Islamic extremist group al-Qaeda against targets in the United States. The attacks caused extensive death and ...
September Massacres: mass killing of prisoners that took place in Paris from September 2 to September 6 in 1792-a major event of what is sometimes called the "First Terror" of the French ...
septenarius: in classical Latin prosody, iambic or trochaic lines of seven feet (equal to Greek tetrameter catalectic verse). The septenarius was commonly used for dialogue in comedies.
septic arthritis: acute inflammation of one or more joints, caused by infection. Symptoms and treatment vary with the type of infection.
septic tank: sewage-disposal unit used principally for single residences not connected to sewer lines. It consists ordinarily of either a single- or double-compartment concrete or steel tank buried in the ground, so ...
septicemia: serious infection of the bloodstream combining bacteremia (the presence of bacteria in the blood) and toxemia (the presence of circulating toxins). Septicemia's onset is signaled by a high fever, chills, ...
Septimania: ancient territory in what is now southwestern France, between the Garonne and Rhone rivers and between the mountains of the Pyrenees and the Cevennes. During the reign of the Roman ...
Septuagint: the earliest extant Greek translation of the Old Testament from the original Hebrew, presumably made for the use of the Jewish community in Egypt when Greek was the lingua franca ...
Seqenenre: (fl. 16th century BC), king of Egypt (c. 1545 BC) who, according to tradition, faced unreasonable demands from the Hyksos, the west-Semitic conquerors who had overrun much of Egypt in ...
Sequani: Celtic people in Gaul, who in the 1st century BC occupied the territory between the Saone, Rhone, and Rhine rivers, with their chief city at Vesontio (modern Besancon). Quarrels with ...
sequence: in music, a melodic or chordal figure repeated at a new pitch, thus unifying and developing musical material. "Real" sequences are exact repetitions; tonal sequences are modified to conform to ...
sequential estimation: in statistics, a method of estimating a parameter by analyzing a sample just large enough to ensure a previously chosen degree of precision. The fundamental technique is to take a ...
sequestration: in its broadest legal sense, the removal of property from a person in possession of the property. In international law, sequestration denotes the seizure of property of an individual by ...
Sequoia: genus of conifers of the bald cypress family (Taxodiaceae), comprising one species, Sequoia sempervirens (redwood; q.v.). The big tree (q.v.), or giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum; see ), is sometimes included ...
Sequoia National Forest: forest in central California, U.S., at the southern end of the Sierra Nevada, just south of Sequoia National Park and extending from the Kings River (north) to the Mojave Desert ...
Sequoia National Park: forested area of 629 square miles (1,629 square km) in the Sierra Nevada, east-central California, U.S. Kings Canyon National Park adjoins to the north and northwest, and on the eastern ...
Sequoyah: creator of the Cherokee writing system.
Seraband rug: handwoven floor covering made in the Ser-e Band locality, southwest of Arak in west-central Iran. These 19th- and early 20th-century rugs, noted for their sturdiness and unobtrusive charm, have a ...
Seraing: municipality, Liege province, eastern Belgium. It lies along the Meuse River, 6 miles (10 km) upstream from Liege. Seraing is a historic hub of Belgium's iron, steel, and machine-building industries. ...
Serao, Matilde: Greek-born novelist and journalist who was founder and editor of the Neapolitan daily Il giorno.
seraph: in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic literature, celestial being variously described as having two or three pairs of wings and serving as a throne guardian of God. Often called the burning ...
Seraphim of Sarov, Saint: Russian monk and mystic whose ascetic practice and counseling in cases of conscience won him the title starets (Russian: "spiritual teacher"). He is one of the most renowned monastic figures ...
Serapias: genus of orchids, family Orchidaceae, containing about 10 species native to the Mediterranean region. The flowers of all species have a helmetlike structure formed by the union of two sepals ...
Serapion Brothers: group of young Russian writers formed in 1921 under the unsettled conditions of the early Soviet regime. Though they had no specific program, they were united in their belief that ...
Serbia: country situated on the west-central Balkan Peninsula. For most of the 20th century, it was a part of Yugoslavia.
Serbian literature: the literature of the Serbs, a Balkan people speaking the Serbian language (still referred to by linguists as Serbo-Croatian).
Serbian Orthodox Church: autocephalous, or ecclesiastically independent, member of the Eastern Orthodox communion, located primarily in Serbia, Montenegro, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Serbo-Bulgarian War: (Nov. 14, 1885-March 3, 1886), military conflict between Serbia and Bulgaria, which demonstrated the instability of the Balkan peace settlement imposed by the Congress of Berlin (Treaty of Berlin, July ...
Serbo-Croatian language: South Slavic language that is the native language of most speakers in Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia. It historically served as an important secondary language in Slovenia and ...
Serbo-Turkish War: (1876-78), military conflict in which Serbia and Montenegro fought the Ottoman Turks in support of an uprising in Bosnia and Herzegovina and, in the process, intensified the Balkan crisis that ...
Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, Kingdom of: Balkan state formed on December 1, 1918. Ruled by the Serbian Karadjordjevic dynasty, the new kingdom included the previously independent kingdoms of Serbia and Montenegro and the South Slav territories ...