tightly twisted ply yarn having a circular cross section and used in commercial and home sewing machines and for hand sewing. Thread is usually wound on spools, with thread size, ...
object usually made of two sticks bound together in the shape of a cross, with coloured threads wound around their ends to resemble a cobweb, used in Tibetan rituals to ...
any insect of the subfamily Sphecinae belonging to the family Sphecidae (order Hymenoptera). They are large, common, solitary (nonsocial) wasps, usually more than 2.5 centimetres (about 1 inch) long. The ...
any of about 24 species of marine fishes of the family Polynemidae (order Perciformes), widely distributed along warm seashores, often over sand. Threadfins have two well-separated dorsal fins and a ...
(Strongyloides stercoralis), worm of the class Nematoda (phylum Aschelminthes) that is parasitic in the human intestine but is able to live freely and breed in the soil. It is especially ...
(1587-89), the last of the Wars of Religion in France in the late 16th century, fought between the moderate but devious King Henry III, the ultra-Roman Catholic Henri I de ...
nuclear power station and the island on which it is situated, in the Susquehanna River near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, U.S. The most serious accident in the history of the American nuclear ...
mountain pass in the Tenasserim Mountain Range on the Myanmar (Burma)-Thailand border, 100 miles (160 km) southeast of Moulmein, Myanmar. The pass, at an elevation of 925 feet (282 m), ...
the ideological basis of the political program of the Chinese national leader Sun Yat-sen (1866-1925), championing the principles of nationalism, democracy, and socialism.
district, administrative and historic county of Hertfordshire, southeast England, in the southwestern corner of the county. Three Rivers district is essentially a dormitory suburban area on the northwest border of ...
American comedy team noted for violent, anarchic slapstick and comedy routines rooted in the burlesque tradition. Six men were members of the team throughout the years: Shemp Howard (original name ...
("Between the Straits"), in Judaism, a period of mourning running from the 17th day of Tammuz, the fourth month of the Jewish religious year, to the 9th day of Av ...
in astronomy, the problem of determining the motion of three celestial bodies moving under no influence other than that of their mutual gravitation. No general solution of this problem (or ...
equestrian competition, testing the overall abilities of horse and rider in competition at dressage, cross-country and endurance riding, and stadium show jumping.
method of agricultural organization introduced in Europe in the Middle Ages and representing a decisive advance in production techniques. In the old two-field system half the land was sown to ...
first of a class of U.S. nuclear-powered attack submarines, launched in 1960. During sea trials after commissioning it sank with 129 persons on board in April 1963, about 200 miles ...
farm machine for separating wheat, peas, soybeans, and other small grain and seed crops from their chaff and straw. Primitive threshing methods involved beating by hand with a flail or ...
(genus Alopias), any of five species of sharks of the family Alopiidae noted for their long, scythelike tails that may constitute almost one-half their total length. Thresher sharks are found ...
extinct genus of advanced mammal-like reptiles, found as fossils in continental deposits formed during the Early Triassic Period in southern Africa (the Triassic Period lasted from 245 to 208 million ...
any member of the order Thysanoptera, among the smallest of the winged insects. They are abundant in the tropical and temperate regions of the world. Approximately 5,000 species have been ...
a small, nucleated, spindle-shaped cell of nonmammalian vertebrates that plays a role in the clotting of blood; or a blood platelet, a small, non-nucleated, cytoplasmic body found in the blood ...
any of several blood disorders characterized by abnormal blood platelets, the dysfunction of these platelets results in prolonged bleeding time, defective clot formation, and a tendency to hemorrhage. Inherited thrombocytopathies ...
abnormally low number of blood platelets in the circulation. Thrombocytopenia may occur as a result of decreased platelet production, when the bone marrow is malfunctioning or not functioning (e.g., in ...
inflammation of a vein coupled with formation of a blood clot that adheres to the wall of the vessel. The inflammation may precede or follow formation of the clot. Because ...
formation of a blood clot in the heart or in a blood vessel. Factors that play a role in the formation of clots (thrombi) include injury to a blood vessel ...
chair of state set on a dais and often surmounted by a canopy, representing the power of the dignitary who sits on it and sometimes conferring that power. The extent ...
fungus infection characterized by raised white patches on the tongue that resemble milk curds. When gently scraped off, these patches reveal inflamed tissue that tends to bleed easily. Beginning on ...
any of about 300 members of the songbird family Turdidae, treated by many modern authorities as a subfamily of the Old World insect eaters, family Muscicapidae. The thrushes are sometimes ...
city, southern Vietnam. It is located on the Saigon River (Song Sai Gon) at the head of a branch of the Mekong delta inland waterway and on a spur railway ...
British travel writer and novelist whose works, often set in foreign locales, explore love, memory, and the loss of faith, as well as the differences between the ideal and the ...
greatest of ancient Greek historians and author of the History of the Peloponnesian War, which recounts the struggle between Athens and Sparta in the 5th century BC. His work was ...
member of a well-organized confederacy of professional assassins who traveled in gangs throughout India for several hundred years. (The earliest authenticated mention of the thugs is found in Ziya'-ud-Din Barani, ...
the best-preserved ancient Roman city in modern Tunisia, located near modern Tabursuq, west of the ancient road between Carthage and Theveste (modern Tebessa, Algeria). Thugga's most notable pre-Roman ruin is ...
(Burmese: "headman"), in Myanmar (Burmese) history, the title of either of two local royal officials: the myothugyi, or township chief, most common in the south, and the thaikthugyi, or regional ...
prehistoric Eskimo (Inuit) culture that developed along the Arctic coast in northern Alaska and possibly as far east as the Amundsen Gulf. It spread rapidly eastward, starting about 900 and ...
(Tm), chemical element, rare-earth metal of transition Group IIIb of the periodic table. One of the rarest of the rare-earth elements, though more abundant than silver, thulium has few commercial ...
in calligraphy, medieval Islamic style of handwritten alphabet. Thuluth (Arabic: "one-third") is written on the principle that one-third of each letter slopes. It is a large and elegant, cursive script, ...
short, thick first digit of the human hand and of the lower-primate hand and foot. It differs from other digits in having only two phalanges (tubular bones of the fingers ...
city, Bern canton, central Switzerland, on the Aare River, which there issues from Lake Thun (Thuner See). It is the gateway and principal centre of the Berner Oberland (highland), just ...
Austrian administrator, prime minister, and governor of Bohemia, who favoured compromise with Czech nationalists but was defeated by extremist Czech and German opposition.
Austrian diplomat and administrator who served as president of the German federal diet at Frankfurt in 1850, where he repeatedly clashed with Prussia's representative Otto von Bismarck.
pro-Czech Austrian statesman and administrator who improved the educational establishments of the Austrian Empire, sought to resolve the antagonisms between Czechs and Germans in Bohemia, and favoured the conversion of ...
Finnish speed skater who, with Ivar Ballangrud of Norway, dominated the sport in the 1920s and '30s. He won five Olympic gold medals, a record for male speed skaters that ...
sound caused by a lightning discharge. Lightning heats the air in its path and causes a large over-pressure of the air within its channel. The channel expands supersonically into the ...
inlet of northwestern Lake Superior, indenting the coast of west-central Ontario, Canada. The bay is 35 miles (55 km) long and 15 miles (24 km) wide; it receives the Kaministiquia ...
city, seat of Thunder Bay district, west-central Ontario, Canada, on Lake Superior's Thunder Bay, at the mouth of the Kaministiquia River. Probably first occupied by French fur traders as early ...
prehistoric beliefs and practices that at times seem directed toward one aspect of the supreme sky god and at other times appear to be concerned with a separate thunder deity. ...
in North American Indian mythology, a powerful spirit in the form of a bird. By its work, the earth was watered and vegetation grew. Lightning was believed to flash from ...
a violent, short-lived weather disturbance that is almost always associated with lightning, thunder, dense clouds, heavy rain or hail, and strong, gusty winds. Thunderstorms arise when layers of warm, moist ...
American writer and cartoonist, whose well-known and highly acclaimed writings and drawings picture the urban man as one who escapes into fantasy because he is befuddled and beset by a ...
canton, northeastern Switzerland. It is bordered on the north by Lake Constance (Bodensee), by the Rhine River on the northwest, and by the cantons of Sankt Gallen on the south ...
vessel used in the Christian liturgy for the burning of aromatic incense strewn on lighted coals. Censers of terra-cotta or metal were widely used in Egypt, in the ancient Middle ...
historic region and Land (state) of Germany. Thuringia Land was re-created just prior to the unification of East with West Germany in 1990. It was constituted from the former East ...
fertile agricultural region of Germany, between the Harz mountains on the north and the Thuringian Forest range on the south. It extends westward from the Saxon lowland. The basin's eastward-flowing ...
range of forested hills and mountains in Germany, extending in an irregular line from the neighbourhood of Eisenach in west-central Thuringia southeastward to the Bavarian frontier, where it merges with ...
town, County Tipperary, Ireland, on the banks of the River Suir. The seat of the Roman Catholic archbishopric of Cashel and Emly, the town is a marketing centre for a ...
English secretary of state during Oliver Cromwell's Protectorate. His voluminous correspondence provides one of the chief historical sources for the Cromwellian era.
lord chancellor of England from June 1778 to April 1783 and from December 1783 to June 1792, who gained that office and continued to hold it under a variety of ...
American politician, a prominent states' rights and segregation advocate who ran for the presidency in 1948 on the Dixiecrat ticket and was one of the longest-serving senators in U.S. history ...
imperial and, after 1806, private postal system operated in western and central Europe by the noble house of Thurn and Taxis. At least two early ancestors of the family, then ...
German linguist and Celtic scholar who was one of the first to use the principles of modern historical linguistics in the field of Celtic studies. He was also an excellent ...
seaport and unitary authority, geographic and historic county of Essex, England, lying on the north bank of the Thames estuary. Its southern part was largely reclaimed from the Thames marshes ...
