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Toradja: group of peoples of central Celebes (Sulawesi), Indonesia. They are believed to be descendants of the invading Austronesian-speaking people that overran the island and absorbed or exterminated the aboriginal population. ...
Torah: in Judaism, in the broadest sense the substance of divine revelation to Israel, the Jewish people: God's revealed teaching or guidance for mankind. The meaning of "Torah" is often restricted ...
torbanite: mineral substance intermediate between oil shale and coal. Whereas destructive distillation of coals produces compounds of carbon and hydrogen with carbon atoms linked in six-membered rings, torbanite produces paraffinic and ...
Torbay: unitary authority, geographic and historic county of Devon, England, on the English Channel coast. It comprises three old towns-Torquay, Paignton, and Brixham-grouped around Tor Bay. A village existed at Torre ...
torbernite: hydrated copper uranate phosphate mineral, Cu(UO₂)₂(PO₄)₂·8-12H₂O, that is one of the principal uranium-bearing minerals. Usually associated with autunite, it occurs as green crystals or micalike masses that are weathering products ...
Torcello: island-village in the Laguna Veneta (Venice Lagoon) and an eastern environ of Venice, Italy. Founded in AD 452 by refugees from Altino on the mainland, the bishopric of Altino was ...
torch cactus: any of several ribbed, cylindrical cacti, in the family Cactaceae, native to South America. Trichocereus spachianus has erect columnar stems, branching at the base and rising to about 2 metres ...
Torchon lace: coarse bobbin-made lace (see bobbin lace) made by peasants in most European countries in which simple geometric patterns are carried out. With other simple kinds of lace it was the ...
torchwood: any of 40 tropical species of large shrubs or trees found in the Americas that burn well due to the high resin content of its wood. Sea torchwood (
Torcy, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, marquis de: French diplomat and foreign minister who negotiated some of the most important treaties of Louis XIV's reign.
Tordesillas, Treaty of: (June 7, 1494), agreement between Spain and Portugal, which aimed at settling conflicts over lands newly discovered or explored by Christopher Columbus and other late 15th-century voyagers.
Torelli, Giacomo: Italian stage designer and engineer whose innovative theatre machinery provided the basis for many modern stage devices.
Torelli, Salinguerra: 13th-century Italian ruler of Ferrara and brother-in-law and chief supporter of Ezzelino III da Romano, despot of Verona, a prominent leader of the Ghibelline (imperial) party.
toreva block: landslide product consisting of a very large block of undisturbed material that has been tilted backward toward the parent cliff during movement down a gentle slope. In northeastern Arizona such ...
Torez: city, Donetsk oblast (province), Ukraine. Torez is a typical coal-mining centre of the Donets Basin coalfield, but in Soviet times its industrial base was considerably widened. It ...
Torfaen: county borough, historic county of Monmouthshire, southeastern Wales. Torfaen is centred on the urbanized and industrialized valley of the Afon Lywd (formerly called the River Torfaen), and it encompasses the ...
Torga, Miguel: poet and diarist whose forceful and highly individual literary style and treatment of universal themes earned him an important position in 20th century Portuguese literature.
Torgau: city, Saxony Land (state), eastern Germany. It is a port on the Elbe River, northeast of Leipzig. First mentioned in 973, Torgau was chartered in 1255-67. After ...
Tori style: in Japanese art, style of sculpture that emerged during the Asuka period (ad 552-645) and lasted into the Nara period (645-794). It was derived from the Chinese Northern Wei style ...
torii: symbolic gateway marking the entrance to the sacred precincts of a Shinto shrine in Japan. The torii, which has many variations, characteristically consists of two cylindrical vertical posts topped by ...
Torii Kiyomasu: also called Shojiro painter of Ukiyo-e (scenes from Japanese daily life).
Torii Kiyonaga: original name Sekiguchi Shinsuke one of the most important Japanese artists of the Ukiyo-e movement (paintings and wood-block prints of the "floating world").
Torii Kiyonobu: Japanese painter who founded the Torii school, the only Ukiyo-e school to have survived to this day. (Ukiyo-e is a popular style of painting and woodblock printing utilizing colour and ...
Torlonia Museum: private archaeological museum in Rome founded in the 18th century by Giovanni Torlonia with sculptures from Roman collections, most originally found in the city of Rome. The Torlonia Museum contains ...
Torme, Mel: American singer, songwriter, composer, arranger, pianist, drummer, actor, and author, one of the 20th century's most versatile, respected, and influential jazz vocalists.
tornado: a small-diameter column of violently rotating air developed within a convective cloud and in contact with the ground. Tornadoes occur most often in association with thunderstorms during the spring and ...
Torne River: northernmost river of Sweden. It rises near the Norwegian border west of Torne Lake, the largest lake in Swedish Lapland, and flows for 354 miles (570 km) to the Gulf ...
Tornebohm, Alfred Elis: Swedish geologist and pioneer in the study and analysis of mountain structure. In 1888 he presented the first outlines of his theory of the overthrust of the Caledonian Range (the ...
Torngat Mountains: range in northern Labrador, Newfoundland, Canada. The Torngat range extends northward for 120 miles (190 km) from Hebron Fjord to Cape Chidley, between the Quebec border (west) and the Atlantic ...
Toro: an interlacustrine Bantu-speaking people who inhabit a high plateau between Lakes Albert and Edward that is bounded on the west by the Ruwenzori Range in southwestern Uganda. Toro lands include ...
Toro: town, Zamora province, in the autonomous community (region) of Castile-Leon in northwestern Spain. It lies along the north bank of the Duero (Portuguese: Douro) River, 18 miles (29 km) east ...
Toronto: city, capital of the province of Ontario, southeastern Canada. It has the most populous metropolitan area in Canada and, as the most important city in Canada's most prosperous province, is ...
Toronto Star, The: influential Canadian newspaper established in 1892 as the Evening Star by 25 printers who had lost their jobs in a labour dispute. A four-page paper at the outset, it changed ...
Toronto Stock Exchange: the largest stock exchange in Canada and one of the largest in North America. The TSE opened in 1861 with 18 stock listings and has since become an innovator in ...
Toronto, University of: coeducational institution of higher learning that is the provincial university of Ontario and one of the oldest and largest universities in Canada. It is composed of federated, affiliated, and constituent ...
torpedo: cigar-shaped, self-propelled underwater missile, launched from a submarine, surface vessel, or airplane and designed for exploding upon contact with the hulls of surface vessels and submarines. A modern torpedo contains ...
torpedo plane: aircraft designed to launch torpedoes. In about 1910 the navies of several countries began to experiment with torpedo launching from low-flying aircraft, usually seaplanes. The first effective use of this ...
torpor: a state of lowered body temperature and metabolic activity assumed by many animals in response to adverse environmental conditions, especially cold and heat. The torpid state may last overnight, as ...
torque: in physics, the tendency of a force to rotate the body to which it is applied. The torque, specified with regard to the axis of rotation, is equal to the ...
torque: in jewelry, metal collar, neck ring, or armband consisting of a bar or ribbon of twisted metal curved into a loop, the ends of which are fashioned into knobs ornamented ...
Torquemada, Tomas de: first grand inquisitor in Spain, whose name has become synonymous with the Christian Inquisition's horror, religious bigotry, and cruel fanaticism.
Torrance: city, Los Angeles county, southern California, U.S. Located south of central Los Angeles along the Pacific Ocean, it lies in the South Bay area. Once part of Rancho San Pedro, ...
Torrance: county, central New Mexico, U.S. It lies in the Basin and Range Province, with the western portion including the Manzano Mountains, topped by Manzano Peak (10,098 feet [3,077 m]). Most ...
Torrance, Jack: American world-record holder in the shot put (1934-48).
Torre Annunziata: city, Campania regione (region), southern Italy. It is a southeastern suburb of Naples on the Bay of Naples at the southern foot of Mount Vesuvius. The city ...
Torre del Greco: city, western Campania regione (region), southern Italy. It lies at the southwestern foot of Mount Vesuvius. It is located on the Bay of Naples and is a ...
Torrelavega: city, Cantabria provincia and comunidad autonoma ("autonomous community"), northern Spain. It lies southwest of Santander city, at the confluence of the Besaya and Saja rivers. The city is an industrial ...
Torrens, Lake: salt lake, lying west of the Flinders Ranges, east-central South Australia, 215 miles (345 km) northwest of Adelaide. About 150 miles (240 km) long and 40 miles (65 km) wide, ...
Torrens, Robert: British economist, soldier, politician, and promoter of schemes for the colonization of Australia.
Torrens, Sir Robert Richard: Australian statesman who introduced a simplified system of transferring land, known as the Torrens Title system, which has been widely adopted throughout the world.
torrent duck: (species Merganetta armata), long-bodied duck, found along rushing mountain streams in the Andes. It is usually classified as an aberrant dabbling duck (q.v.) but is sometimes placed in its own ...
Torreon: city, southwestern Coahuila estado ("state"), northeastern Mexico. It lies along the Nazas River at an elevation of 3,674 feet (1,120 m) above sea level. It lies northwest of Mexico City ...
Torres Bodet, Jaime: Mexican poet, novelist, educator, and statesman.
Torres Islands: northernmost group of Vanuatu, southwestern Pacific Ocean, 60 miles (100 km) north of Espiritu Santo. They extend for 35 miles (56 km) and comprise Hiu (Hiw), the largest (10 miles ...
Torres Naharro, Bartolome de: playwright and theorist, the most important Spanish dramatist before Lope de Vega, and the first playwright to create realistic Spanish characters.
Torres Strait: passage between the Coral Sea, on the east, and the Arafura Sea, in the western Pacific Ocean. To the north lies New Guinea and to the south Cape York Peninsula ...
Torres Strait Islands: island group in the Torres Strait, north of Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, Australia, south of the island of New Guinea. They comprise three clusters: Western (high, rocky, and barren, the ...
Torres Vedras: town and concelho, (municipality), Lisboa district, Portugal, north of Lisbon. Roman inscriptions were found there, but the Latin name of the town, Turres Veteres, is probably of medieval origin. It ...
Torres Villarroel, Diego de: mathematician and writer, famous in his own time as the great maker of almanacs that delighted the Spanish public, now remembered for his Vida, picaresque memoirs that are among the ...
Torrey, Charles Cutler: U.S. Semitic scholar who held independent and stimulating views on certain biblical problems.
Torrey, John: botanist and chemist known for his extensive studies of North American flora.
Torreya: a genus of approximately six species of ornamental trees and shrubs in the yew family (Taxaceae), distributed in localized areas of North America, China, and Japan. Torreyas have persistent, linear, ...
Torricelli's theorem: statement that the speed, v, of a liquid flowing under the force of gravity out of an opening in a tank is proportional jointly to the square root of the ...
Torricelli, Evangelista: Italian physicist and mathematician who invented the barometer and whose work in geometry aided in the eventual development of integral calculus. Inspired by Galileo's writings, he wrote a treatise on ...
Torridge: district in the northwestern part of the administrative and historic county of Devon, England, with its eastern boundary at the mouth of the River Torridge, the site of its main ...
Torrigiani, Pietro: Florentine sculptor and painter who became the first exponent of the Italian Renaissance idiom in England.
Torrijos, Omar: dictator-like leader of Panama (1968-78), who negotiated the Panama Canal treaties with the United States, leading to Panama's eventual assumption of control of the canal.
Torrington: city, coextensive with the town (township) of Torrington, Litchfield county, northwestern Connecticut, U.S., on the Naugatuck River. The town was named in 1732 for Great Torrington, England, but the area ...
Torrington: town, seat (1913) of Goshen county, southeastern Wyoming, U.S., on the North Platte River, near the Nebraska border. The site, 23 miles (37 km) east of Fort Laramie National Historic ...
Torrio, Johnny: American gangster who became a top crime boss in Chicago and, later, one of the founders of modern organized crime in America.
Torroja, Eduardo: Spanish architect and engineer notable as a pioneer in the design of concrete-shell structures.
Torshavn: port and capital of the Faeroe Islands. It is situated at the southern tip of Streymoy, the largest island of the Faeroe Islands. Torshavn was founded in the 13th century, ...
torsion balance: device used to measure the gravitational acceleration at the Earth's surface. Other such devices, using different methods to obtain the same result, are pendulums and gravimeters. The torsion balance consists ...
torsion bar: rod or bar that resists twisting and has a strong tendency to return to its original position when twisted. In automobiles a torsion bar is a long spring-steel element with ...
Torstenson, Lennart: Swedish field marshal and artillerist who transformed the use of field artillery, making it mobile to a previously unknown degree. He won important victories in the Thirty Years' War and ...
tort: in common law, any instance of harmful behaviour, from physical attack on one's person to interference with one's goods or use and enjoyment of one's land, economic interests, and honour, ...