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table tennis ... Tagore, Debendranath
table tennis
ball game similar in principle to lawn tennis and played on a flat table divided into two equal courts by a net fixed across its width at the middle. The ...
tableware
utensils used at the table for holding, serving, and handling food and drink. Tableware includes various types of containers (known as hollowware, q.v.), spoons and forks (flatware, q.v.), knives (cutlery, ...
Taboga Island
island in the Bay of Panama, central Panama. Taboga and its small neighbour, Taboguilla Island, lie 11 miles (18 km) south of Panama City, with which they are connected by ...
taboo
the prohibition of an action or the use of an object based on ritualistic distinctions of them either as being sacred and consecrated or as being dangerous, unclean, and accursed. ...
Tabor
city, Jihocesky kraj (region), Czech Republic. It lies along a bend in the Luznice River 50 miles (80 km) south of Prague. Founded in 1420 by Jan Zizka and other ...
Tabor, Mount
historic elevation of northern Israel, in Lower Galilee near the edge of the Plain of Esdraelon ('Emeq Yizre'el). Though comparatively low (1,929 feet [588 m]), it dominates the level landscape ...
Tabora
town, west-central Tanzania. Lying on the Central Plateau at an elevation of 4,000 feet (1,200 m), it has a mean annual temperature of 73° F (23° C). The town has ...
taboret
type of armless and backless seat or stool. Early taborets were probably named for their cylindrical shape, which resembled a drum (Old French: tabour).
Taborite
member of a militant group of Bohemian Hussite reformers who in 1420 gave the biblical name of Tabor (Czech: Tabor) to their fortified settlement south of Prague. Like their more ...
Tabriz
fourth largest city of Iran, lying about 4,485 feet (1,367 m) above sea level in the extreme northwestern part of the country. The climate is continental: hot and dry in ...
Tabriz carpet
floor covering handmade in or around Tabriz, the principal city of northwestern Iran and one of its best-known carpet-producing centres. The identification of the court carpets of the early 16th-century ...
Tabriz school
in painting, school of miniaturists founded by the Mongol Il-Khans early in the 14th century and active through the first half of the 16th century. The style represented the first ...
Tabuaeran Atoll
coral formation of the Northern Line Islands, part of Kiribati, in the west-central Pacific Ocean. Discovered in 1798 by an American, Edmund Fanning, the atoll is composed of several islets, ...
tabula rasa
(Latin: "scraped tablet," i.e., "clean slate"), in epistemology (theory of knowledge) and psychology, a supposed condition that empiricists attribute to the human mind before ideas have been imprinted on it ...
Tabulata
major division of extinct coral animals found as fossils in Ordovician to Jurassic marine rocks (505 million to 144 million years old). Tabulata is characterized by the presence of interior ...
Tabun
site of paleoanthropological excavations in a deep rock shelter located on the edge of Mount Carmel and facing the Mediterranean Sea in northern Israel. Artifacts discovered in a long sequence ...
Tabwa
a people who live mainly on the southwestern shores of Lake Tanganyika, on the high grassy plateaus of the Marungu massif in extreme southeastern Congo (Kinshasa). Some also live in ...
Tachikawa
city, Tokyo to (metropolis), Honshu, Japan. It lies along the Chuo Line (railway), east of Tokyo city. In 1922 an army airfield was constructed nearby, and large munitions and aircraft ...
tachinid fly
a member of any species of the insect family Tachinidae (order Diptera), with larvae that are internal parasites of other insects. Ranging in size from 2 to 18 mm (0.08 ...
Tachira
state, western Venezuela, bounded on the west by Colombia. The territory of 4,300 square miles (11,100 square km) lies in the southwestern reaches of the Andean Cordillera de Merida. Agriculture ...
Tachism
(from tache, "spot"), style of painting practiced in Paris after World War II and through the 1950s that, like its American equivalent, Action painting, featured the intuitive, spontaneous gesture of ...
tachometer
device for indicating the angular (rotary) speed of a rotating shaft. The term is usually restricted to mechanical or electrical instruments that indicate instantaneous values of speed in revolutions per ...
Tachos
second king (reigned 365-360 BC) of the 30th dynasty of Egypt; he led an unsuccessful attack on the Persians in Phoenicia. Tachos was aided in the undertaking by the aged ...
tachycardia
in physiology and medicine, a heart rate of more than 100 beats per minute. Tachycardia occurs normally during and after exercise or during stress and represents no danger to healthy ...
tachylyte
glassy igneous rocks low in silica, such as basalt or diabase. Tachylytes are black with a pitchlike or resinous lustre; in thin sections they are characteristically brown and translucent, and ...
tachyon
hypothetical subatomic particle whose velocity always exceeds that of light. The existence of the tachyon, though not experimentally established, appears consistent with the theory of relativity, which was originally thought ...
Tacitus
Roman orator and public official, probably the greatest historian and one of the greatest prose stylists who wrote in the Latin language. Among his works are the
Tacitus
Roman emperor in 275-276.
Tacloban
chartered city, northeastern Leyte, Philippines, on San Pedro Bay at the southern entrance to San Juanico Strait. It is the largest city and distributing centre in the eastern Visayas (Leyte ...
Tacna
southernmost departamento of Peru, bounded by the Pacific Ocean (southwest), Bolivia (northeast), and Chile (south). It occupies an area of 6,171 square miles (15,983 square km). In the coastal desert ...
Tacna
capital of Tacna departamento, southern Peru, on the Caplina River at 1,844 feet (562 m) above sea level, in the arid Andean foothills. When the Spaniards arrived at the site ...
Tacoma
city, seat (1880) of Pierce county, western Washington, U.S., on Commencement Bay of Puget Sound, 30 miles (48 km) south of Seattle. The bay was the starting point (1841) of ...
Tacoma Narrows Bridge
first suspension bridge across the Narrows of Puget Sound, connecting the Olympic Peninsula with the mainland of Washington state, U.S., and a landmark failure in engineering history. Four months after ...
Taconic orogeny
a mountain-building event that affected the Appalachian Geosyncline along the eastern coast of the United States. Evidence for the orogeny is most pronounced in the northern Appalachians, but its effects ...
Taconic Range
part of the Appalachian mountain system, U.S., extending southward for 150 miles (240 km) from a point southwest of Brandon, Vt., to northern Putnam county, New York. It rises to ...
taconite
a low-grade siliceous iron formation in Minnesota, U.S., from which high-grade iron ore is derived. The iron formation consists of fine-grained silica with variable ratios of hematite and magnetite totaling ...
tactical weapons system
system integrating tactical weapons with electronic equipment for target acquisition, aiming, or fire control or a combination of such purposes. Tactical weapons are designed for offensive or defensive use at ...
tactics
in warfare, the art and science of fighting battles on land, on sea, and in the air. It is concerned with the approach to combat; the disposition of troops and ...
Tacuarembo
city, north-central Uruguay. The Haedo Mountains dominate the adjoining area. Orchids and hardwoods, including quebracho, algarrobo, urunday, and guayabo, grow there. Founded in 1831 by Bernabe Rivera, it was first ...
Tadjoura, Gulf of
gulf indenting the coastline of Djibouti, eastern Africa, located at the extreme western end of the Gulf of Aden. It provides some shelter for the port of Djibouti on the ...
Tadoba National Park
national park in Maharashtra state, western India. Extending over an area of 45 square miles (117 square km), the park consists of dense forests of sal (Shorea), margosa, mahua, and ...
tadpole
aquatic larval stage of frogs and toads. Compared with the larvae of salamanders, tadpoles have short, oval bodies, with broad tails, small mouths, and no external gills. The internal gills ...
tadpole shrimp
(order Notostraca), any member of a small group of crustaceans (class Branchiopoda), composed of the genera Triops and Lepidurus. The approximately 15 known species are strictly freshwater forms, inhabiting lakes, ...
tae kwon do
(Korean: "art of kicking and punching") Korean art of unarmed combat that is based on the earlier form of Korean self-defense known as tae kyon and on karate. The name ...
Taedong River
river, southern North Korea, rising in the Nangnim Mountains in Hamgyong-nam do (province). It flows 273 miles (439 km) southwestward to enter Korea Bay, an arm of the Yellow Sea, ...
Taegu
city and provincial capital, Kyongsang-puk do (province), southeastern South Korea. Taegu is Korea's third largest city and has the status of a special city, with administrative status equal to that ...
Taejon
city and provincial capital, Ch'ungch'ong-nam do (province), southeastern South Korea. Taejon has the status of a special city, with administrative status equal to that of a province. Until the end ...
tael
a Chinese unit of weight that, when applied to silver, was long used as a unit of currency. Most taels were equivalent to 1.3 ounces of silver.
Taenia
genus of tapeworms parasitic in mammals. See tapeworm.
taeniodont
any member of an extinct order (Taeniodonta) of mammals that lived in North America throughout the Paleocene and into the middle Eocene Epoch (66.4 to 43 million years ago). The ...
Taeuber, Conrad; and Barnes Taeuber, Irene
American demographers, statisticians, and social scientists whose scholarly work helped found the science of demography and made them authorities on population movements in the United States.
Taewon-gun
father of the Korean king Kojong.
Taff Vale case
(1900-01), in Great Britain, the successful trial of a suit brought by the Taff Vale Railway Company against the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants (ASRS) in which the courts held ...
taffeta
fine, crisp plain-woven fabric with a faint weft, or filling-way, rib due to the greater number of warp threads than filling threads. It frequently has a lustrous surface. There are ...
taffy
flavoured syrup candy of Europe and the Americas that is cooked and then rigorously worked during cooling into a hard, chewy, glossy mass. Although the great 19th-century demand for taffy ...
Tafilalt
largest Saharan oasis of Morocco, in the southeastern part of the country. The oasis comprises the fortified villages of Erfoud, Arab Sebbah du Ziz, Rissani, Seffalat, Aoufous, and Jorf, together ...
tafsir
the science of explanation of the Qur'an, the sacred scripture of Islam, or of Qur'anic commentary. So long as Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam, was alive, no other authority for ...
Taft, Helen
American first lady (1909-13), the wife of William Howard Taft, 27th U.S. president and 10th chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Taft, Lorado
American sculptor of portrait busts and monumental, allegorical works. He was also an influential teacher and writer.
Taft, Robert A.
Republican leader in the U.S. Senate for 14 years (1939-53) whose espousal of traditional conservatism won him the sobriquet "Mr. Republican"; his failure to receive the presidential nomination in 1948 ...
Taft, William Howard
27th president of the United States (1909-13) and 10th chief justice of the United States (1921-30). As the choice of President Theodore Roosevelt to succeed him and carry on the ...
Taft-Hartley Act
(1947), in U.S. history, law-enacted over the veto of Pres. Harry S. Truman-amending much of the pro-union Wagner Act of 1935. A variety of factors, including the fear of Communist ...
tag
children's game in which, in its simplest form, the player who is "it" chases the other players, trying to touch one of them, thereby making that person "it." The game ...
Tagalog
largest cultural-linguistic group in the Philippines. They form the dominant population in the city of Manila; in all provinces bordering Manila Bay except Pampanga; in Nueva Ecija to the north; ...
Tagalog language
member of the Central Philippine branch of the Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian) language family and the base for Pilipino, an official language of the Philippines, together with English. It is most closely ...
Taganrog
city and seaport, Rostov oblast (province), southwestern Russia. It lies on the northern coast of Taganrog Gulf of the Sea of Azov. Founded as a fortress and naval base in ...
Tagawa
city, Fukuoka ken (prefecture), Kyushu, Japan, on the upper Onga River. It was a farm village until the systematic exploitation of nearby coalfields began after 1900. Tagawa was the largest ...
Tagaytay
city, southwestern Luzon, Philippines. It is located on Tagaytay Ridge at about 2,000 feet (600 m) above sea level, on the northern flank of Mount Taal. The city is a ...
Tagbilaran
city on Bohol Island, in the Bohol (Mindanao) Sea, Philippines. Tagbilaran lies along the Bohol Strait and is sheltered by Panglao Island. It is a principal port of the area, ...
Tagelied
(from Middle High German Tageliet, "day song"), a medieval German dawn song, or song of lament by lovers parting at dawn. The Tagelied is similar to the Provencal alba and ...
Taggard, Genevieve
American poet who, though best remembered for her biography of Emily Dickinson, was much admired for her lyric verse that deftly and passionately mingles intellectual, personal, social, and aesthetic concerns.
Taginae, Battle of
(June or July 552), decisive engagement fought near what is now the town of Gualdo Tadino, Italy. In the battle the Byzantine general Narses defeated the main body of the ...
Taglioni, Filippo
Italian dancer and choreographer who developed the Romantic style of ballets.
Taglioni, Marie
Italian ballet dancer whose fragile, delicate dancing typified the early 19th-century Romantic style.
tagmemics
a system of linguistic analysis developed by the American linguist Kenneth L. Pike in the 1950s and applied to the description of a very large number of hitherto unrecorded languages. ...
Tagore, Debendranath
Hindu philosopher and religious reformer, active in the Brahmo Samaj ("Society of Brahma," also translated as "Society of God"), which purged the Hindu religion and way of life of many ...