northern tributary of the Orange River, South Africa. Rising at Sterkfontein Beacon near Breyten, in Mpumalanga province, it flows 750 miles (1,210 km) southwest to its confluence with the Orange ...
city, western Finland, on the Gulf of Bothnia. Founded in 1606 by the Swedish king Charles IX, it was chartered in 1611 and named for the reigning house of Vasa. ...
in crystallography, absence of an atom or molecule from a point that it would normally occupy in a crystal. Such an imperfection (crystal defect) in the regular spacing of atoms ...
suspension of weakened, killed, or fragmented microorganisms or toxins or of antibodies or lymphocytes that is administered primarily to prevent disease.
genus of about 150 species of shrubs, in the heath family (Ericaceae), found widely throughout the Northern Hemisphere and extending south along tropical mountain ranges. The shrubs are erect or ...
town (township) on the island of Mauritius, in the western Indian Ocean. It lies in the western highlands region of the country, about 10 miles (16 km) south of Port ...
in biology, a space within a cell that is empty of cytoplasm, lined with a membrane, and filled with fluid. Especially in protozoa, vacuoles are cytoplasmic organs (organelles), performing functions ...
vessel with double walls, the space between which is evacuated. It was invented by the British chemist and physicist Sir James Dewar in the 1890s. Thermos is a proprietary name ...
all processes and physical measurements carried out under conditions of below-normal atmospheric pressure. A process or physical measurement is generally performed in a vacuum for one of the following reasons: ...
one of two Hindu subsects of the Srivaisnava, the other being the Tenkalai. Though the two groups use both Sanskrit and Tamil scriptures, the Vadakalai relies more on Sanskrit texts, ...
city, administrative headquarters of Vadodara district, east central Gujarat state, west central India, on the Visvamitra River, southeast of Ahmadabad. The earliest record of the city is in a grant ...
region of aeration above the water table. This zone also includes the capillary fringe above the water table, the height of which will vary according to the grain size of ...
town and seat of Finnmark fylke (county), northern Norway. Located on the northern shore of Varangerfjorden, the original settlement was on the adjacent island of Vassoya, but in the early ...
gold coin-like ornament with runic inscriptions and rich designs, discovered in Ostergotland, Swed., probably dating from the 5th century. A 24-character futhark (runic alphabet), arranged in three groups of eight ...
capital of Liechtenstein, central Europe, in the Rhine Valley. The seat of one of the two former lordships (Schellenberg and Vaduz) that united to form the principality in 1719, Vaduz ...
Greek insurgent, founding member of the Greek Communist Party, and commander of the communist-led Democratic Army in the civil war against the Greek government (1946-49).
Russian ballerina and teacher who developed a technique and system of instruction based on the classical style of the Imperial Russian Ballet but which also incorporated aspects of the more ...
canal in female mammals that receives the male reproductive cells, or sperm, and is part of the birth canal during the birth process. In humans, it also functions as an ...
muscle spasm that closes the opening to the vagina in the female reproductive tract. The vagina serves as a birth canal for the delivery of babies and as the copulatory ...
inflammation of the vagina, usually owing to infection. The chief symptom is leukorrhea, i.e., the abnormal flow of a whitish or yellowish discharge from the vagina. The treatment of vaginitis ...
state or action of one who has no established home and drifts from place to place without visible or lawful means of support. Traditionally a vagrant was thought to be ...
longest and most complex of the cranial nerves. The vagus nerve runs from the brain through the face and thorax to the abdomen. It is a mixed nerve that contains ...
tributary of the Danube River in Slovakia. Rising in the Tatra Mountains as the Biely Vah (in the High Tatras) and Cierny Vah (in the Low Tatras), the river describes ...
(Sanskrit: "mount," or "vehicle"), in Hindu mythology, the creature that serves as the vehicle and as the sign of a particular deity. The vahana accompanies, pulls the chariot of, or ...
people inhabiting northwestern Liberia and contiguous parts of Sierra Leone. Early Portuguese writers called them Gallinas ("chickens"), reputedly after a local wildfowl. Speaking a language of the Mande branch of ...
politician who served three times as prime minister of Romania (1919-20, 1932, 1933) and was a leading spokesman for the union of Transylvania with the lands of the Old Kingdom ...
river in Tamil Nadu state, southern India, flowing 150 miles (240 km) generally southeast. Rising in the Varushanad Hills of western Tamil Nadu, it initially flows northeast through the Kambam ...
German philosopher who, influenced by Arthur Schopenhauer and F.A. Lange, developed Kantianism in the direction of pragmatism by espousing a theory of "fictions" as the basis of what he called ...
town and ski resort, Eagle county, west-central Colorado, U.S. It is located 100 miles (160 km) west of Denver. The town extends about 7 miles (11 km) through the Gore ...
American telegraph pioneer and an associate and financial backer of Samuel F.B. Morse in the experimentation that made the telegraph a commercial reality.
American executive who twice headed the Bell Telephone Company at critical times and played a major role in establishing telephone services in the United States.
French revolutionary publicist and politician who was exiled for his role in the Paris Commune of 1871. After his return he became an important member of the Socialist Party.
concrete arch dam across the Vaiont River in Italy with a height of 859 feet (262 m) and crest length of 623 feet (190 m). Completed in 1961, it was ...
in Hinduism, a religious ascetic who worships principally one or another form of the god Vishnu. Vairagins generally wear white robes, in contrast to the ochre-coloured robes worn by Saiva ...
city of ancient India, north of Patna, northwestern Bihar state, on the Gandak River. In antiquity Vaisali was the capital of the Licchavi republic and was closely associated with the ...
("Particular"), one of the six orthodox systems (darshans) of Indian philosophy, significant for its naturalism, a feature that is not characteristic of most Indian thought. The Sanskrit philosopher Kanada Kasyapa ...
worship of the god Vishnu and of his incarnations, principally as Rama and as Krishna. It is one of the major forms of modern Hinduism-with Saivism and Shaktism (Saktism).
alternate name for Kubera, the popular god of wealth in Hindu, Jaina, and Buddhist mythology. Among the four guardians of the world (lokapala), he is ruler of ...
member of an esoteric Hindu cult centred in Bengal that sought religious experience through the world of the senses, specifically human sexual love. Sahaja (Sanskrit: "easy" or "natural") as a ...
third highest in ritual status of the four varnas, or social classes, of Hindu India, traditionally described as commoners. Legend states that the varnas (or colours) sprang from Prajapati, a ...
city, western Liberia, West Africa. Located in the Bomi Hills former iron-mining district, it is associated with the Liberian Mining Company (LMC; a subsidiary of Republic Steel Corporation), which closed ...
prince-patriarch of Buddhism in Siam, who institutionalized Thai Buddhism, spread the faith in the countryside, and was his generation's leading intellectual.
important development within Buddhism in India and neighbouring countries, notably Tibet. Vajrayana, in the history of Buddhism, marks the transition from Mahayana speculative thought to the enactment of Buddhist ideas ...
in Vajrayana (Tantric Buddhism), female embodiment of the cognitive function leading to Buddhahood. Vajrayana emphasizes experience over speculation but uses the terms of speculative philosophical Buddhism in an imaginative way. ...
Indian ruling house originating in the central Deccan in the mid-3rd century AD, the empire of which is believed to have extended from Malwa and Gujarat in the north to ...
a mountainous region and panhandle in the Pamir Mountains of extreme northeastern Afghanistan. From the demarcation of the Afghan frontier (1895-96), the panhandle formed a political buffer between Russian Turkistan, ...
supernatural power believed by the Baltic Finns to reside in those natural sites, objects, and animals that for various reasons attracted popular attention and inspired strong emotional attachments. Vaki was ...
town, Abitibi-Temiscamingue region, western Quebec province, Canada. Val-d'Or lies near Lakes Blouin, de Montigny, and Lemoine. Although its name means "valley of gold," there is no valley in the vicinity. ...
city of ancient India that was the capital of the Maitraka dynasty in the 5th-8th century AD. It was situated on an inlet of the Gulf of Cambay (Khambhat), northwest ...
canton, southern Switzerland. It borders Italy to the south and France to the west and is bounded by the cantons of Vaud and Bern on the north and Uri and ...
judet (county), south-central Romania. The Transylvanian Alps (Southern Carpathians) and the sub-Carpathians rise above settlement areas in the valleys, and the Olt and Cerna rivers drain southward through the county. ...
upland region running north-south, about midway between St. Petersburg and Moscow, Russia. The hills are a northward extension of the Central Russian Upland. The ridge is overlain by deposited glacial ...
king of Sweden (1250-75) who governed jointly with his father Birger Jarl (q.v.) until the latter's death in 1266 and then reigned alone. Because of an extramarital affair with his ...
king of Denmark (1157-82) who ended the Wend (Slav) threat to Danish shipping, won independence from the Holy Roman emperor, and gained church approval for hereditary rule by his dynasty, ...
king of Denmark (1202-41) who, between 1200 and 1219, extended the Danish Baltic empire from Schleswig in the west to include lands as far east as Estonia. In his later ...
king of Denmark (1340-75) who united his country under his own rule after a brief period of alien domination. His aggressive foreign policy led to conflict with Sweden, North German ...
city, Ciudad Real province, in the autonomous community (region) of Castile-La Mancha, south central Spain. The city lies on the left bank of the Rio Jabalon, southeast of the city ...
painter, president of the Sevilla (Seville) Academy, and the major figure in Sevillian painting for many years, known for his dramatic, inventive, and often violent paintings.
Spanish Humanist. He and his twin brother, Alfonso, were members of an influential intellectual family that played significant roles in the religious, political, and literary life of Spain and its ...
