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Volgograd: oblast (province), southwestern Russia, lying athwart the lower Volga and Don rivers. The Volga is flanked on the west by the Volga Upland, which is continued south of Volgograd as ...
Volhynia: area of northwestern Ukraine that was a principality (10th-14th century) and then an autonomous component of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and was ruled largely by its own aristocracy (after ...
Volkhov River: river, northwestern Russia. It is the major outlet for Lake Ilmen, whence it flows past Novgorod and directly north-northeast into Lake Ladoga across a level, swampy basin. The river is ...
Volkischer Beobachter: (German: "People's Observer"), daily newspaper published by the Nazi Party in Germany from the 1920s until the fall of the Third Reich in 1945. The paper was originally founded in ...
Volkmann's contracture: disorder of the wrist and hand in which the hand and fingers become fixed in a characteristic bent position. The disorder may be caused by the pressure of bandages, a ...
Volkov, Vladislav Nikolayevich: Soviet cosmonaut, participant in the Soyuz 7 and 11 missions of 1969 and 1971, the second of which resulted in the death of three cosmonauts.
Volkova, Vera: Soviet ballet teacher who greatly influenced Western dance training.
Volkovysk: city, Hrodno oblast (province), western Belarus. It dates from the 13th century as a fortified point on the frontier between the principality of Hrodno and the grand duchy of Lithuania, ...
Volksraad: advisory body created by the Dutch in the East Indies (now Indonesia) in 1917 and opened in May 1918. It served as a forum for the expression of grievances but ...
Volkswagen AG: major German automobile manufacturer, founded by the German government in 1937 to mass-produce a low-priced "people's car." Headquarters are in Wolfsburg.
Vollard, Ambroise: French art dealer and publisher who in the late 19th and early 20th centuries championed the then avant-garde works of such artists as Paul Cezanne, Henri Matisse, and Pablo Picasso.
volleyball: game played by two teams, usually of six players on a side, in which the players use their hands to bat a ball back and forth over a high net, ...
Volney, Constantin-Francois de Chasseboeuf, Count de: historian and philosopher, whose work Les Ruines . . . epitomized the rationalist historical and political thought of the 18th century.
Volodymyr-Volynskyy: city, Volyn oblast (province), northwestern Ukraine. The city is situated on the Bug River where it is crossed by the Kovel-Lviv railway. It was founded by Vladimir I, grand prince ...
Vologda: oblast (province), northwestern Russia. The oblast consists of alternating broad river basins and morainic hills. The western third is drained by tributaries of the upper Volga River, while the eastern ...
Vologda: city and administrative centre of Vologda oblast (province), northwestern Russia. The city lies along the Vologda River above its confluence with the Sukhona River and is situated about 250 miles ...
Vologeses I: king of Parthia (reigned c. AD 51-80), the son of the previous king, Vonones II, by a Greek concubine.
Vologeses III: one of the rival claimants to the throne of the Parthian king Pacorus II.
Vologeses IV: king of Parthia (reigned 148-192).
Vologeses V: king of Parthia who reigned 191-208/209.
Vologeses VI: king of Parthia (reigned 209-c. 212).
Volos: port, the third largest of Greece (after Piraeus and Thessaloniki). It lies at the head of the Gulf of Pagasitikos (Volos) on the east coast of Thessaly. Volos is the ...
Volsci: ancient Italic people prominent in the history of Roman expansion during the 5th century BC. They belonged to the Osco-Sabellian group of tribes and lived (c. 600 BC) in the ...
Volscian language: an Italic language or dialect, closely related to Umbrian and Oscan and more distantly related to Latin and Faliscan. Spoken in central Italy by the Volsci people, neighbours of the ...
Volsinii: ancient Etruscan town on the site of present-day Bolsena (Viterbo province, Italy). At an unidentified neighbouring site was a temple to Voltumna, which was the headquarters of the 12-city Etruscan ...
Volsk: city, Saratov oblast (province), western Russia. The city lies along the Volga River opposite its confluence with the Bolshoy (Great) Irgiz. Originating as the small settlement of Malykovka, it was ...
Volstead Act: (1919), U.S. law enacted to provide enforcement for the Eighteenth Amendment, prohibiting the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages. See prohibition.
volt: unit of electrical potential, potential difference and electromotive force in the metre-kilogram-second system (SI); it is equal to the difference in potential between two points in a conductor carrying one ...
Volta Redonda: city, western Rio de Janeiro estado ("state"), Brazil. It lies along the Paraiba do Sul River, at 1,500 feet (460 m) above sea level. The city is known for its ...
Volta River: chief river system of Ghana, formed from the confluence of the Black Volta and White Volta (qq.v.) headstreams. The Volta flows generally southward through Ghana, discharging into the Gulf of ...
Volta, Conte Alessandro: Italian physicist whose invention of the electric battery provided the first source of continuous current.
volta, la: 16th-century leaping and turning dance for couples, originating in Italy and popular at French and German court balls until about 1750. Performed with a notoriously intimate embrace, it became respectable, ...
Volta, Lake: artificial lake in Ghana. The lake is formed by the Akosombo Dam (q.v.), which, begun in 1961 and completed in 1965, dammed the Volta River just south of Ajena and ...
voltage regulator: any electrical or electronic device that maintains the voltage of a power source within acceptable limits. The voltage regulator is needed to keep voltages within the prescribed range that can ...
Voltaire: one of the greatest of all French writers. Although only a few of his works are still read, he continues to be held in worldwide repute as a courageous crusader ...
Volterra: town and episcopal see, Pisa provincia, Toscana (Tuscany) regione, central Italy, northwest of Siena. As the ancient Velathri it was one of the 12 cities of the Etruscan confederation. It ...
Volterra, Daniele da: Italian Mannerist painter and sculptor, noted for his finely drawn, highly idealized figures done in the style of Michelangelo.
Volterra, Vito: Italian mathematician who strongly influenced the modern development of calculus.
voltmeter: instrument that measures voltages of either direct or alternating electric current on a scale usually graduated in volts, millivolts (0.001 volt), or kilovolts (1,000 volts). The typical commercial or laboratory ...
Volturno River: river, south-central Italy. It rises in the Abruzzese Apennines near Alfedena and flows southeast as far as its junction with the Calore River near Caiazzo. It then turns southwest, past ...
Voltzia: a genus of fossil cone-bearing plants dating to the Early Triassic epoch (beginning 245 million years ago). It belongs to the family Voltziaceae, order Coniferales (sometimes Voltziales). The genus showed ...
Volubilis: North African archaeological site, located near Fes in the Jebel Zerhoun Plain of Morocco. Under the Mauretanian king Juba II in the 1st century BC and the 1st century AD, ...
volumetric analysis: any method of quantitative chemical analysis in which the amount of a substance is determined by measuring the volume that it occupies or, in broader usage, the volume of a ...
voluntarism: any metaphysical or psychological system that assigns to the will (Latin: voluntas) a more predominant role than that attributed to the intellect. Christian philosophers have sometimes described as voluntarist: the ...
Volunteers of America: religious social-welfare organization in the United States that offers spiritual and material aid to those in need. It was founded in New York City in 1896 by Ballington and Maud ...
volute: any marine snail of the family Volutidae (subclass Prosobranchia of the class Gastropoda). Most species have large, colourful shells, typically with an elongated aperture in the first whorl of the ...
Volvo Aktiebolaget: major Swedish manufacturer of automobiles and related products. Headquarters are in Goteborg.
volvocid: any rounded, plantlike protozoan of the phytoflagellate order Volvocida. Common in fresh water, volvocids often colour ponds and ditches green. Some are classified by botanists as green algae (Chlorophyta). Typical ...
Volvox: a freshwater, chlorophyll-containing organism that lives in colonies; it is assigned by zoologists to the flagellate protozoan order Volvocida and by botanists to the green algae (Chlorophyta). The oval, hollow ...
volvulus: twisting of a portion of the digestive tract on its mesentery (the fold of membrane that attaches the intestine to the posterior abdominal wall), resulting in intestinal obstruction, severe pain, ...
Volyn: oblast (province), northwestern Ukraine. The larger northern part of the oblast consists of the flat, swampy lowland of the Pripet Marshes; reed and grass marshes are very extensive; drier areas ...
Volyn-Podilsk Upland: plateau extending between the Dniester and upper Bug river valleys in the west and the Dnieper River in the east in western Ukraine. In the north, where it is bordered ...
Volzhsky: city, Volgograd oblast (region), southwestern Russia, on the Volga River. Volzhsky was founded in 1951 to house persons working on the large hydroelectric station on the Volga. On completion of ...
Vom: town, Plateau state, central Nigeria, situated on the Jos Plateau near the source of the Kaduna River, 18 miles (29 km) southwest of Jos town. It is the site of ...
vomiting: the forcible ejection of stomach contents from the mouth. Like nausea, vomiting may have a wide range of causes, including motion sickness, the use of certain drugs, intestinal obstruction, disease ...
von Gierke's disease: most common of a group of hereditary glycogen-storage diseases. It is inherited as an autosomal-recessive trait. In von Gierke's disease, the body's metabolism of glycogen is blocked by the absence ...
von Hugel, Friedrich, Baron Von Hugel: Roman Catholic philosopher and author who was the forerunner of the realist revival in philosophy and the theological study of religious feeling.
von Neumann, John: Hungarian American mathematician, who made important contributions in quantum physics, logic, meteorology, and computer science. His theory of games had a significant influence upon economics.
von Willebrand's disease: inherited hemorrhagic disorder characterized by a prolonged bleeding time and a deficiency of antihemophilic factor (factor VIII), which is an important blood clotting agent. This disorder is due to deficiencies ...
Vonck, Jean-Francois: Belgian lawyer who led the democratic faction, the Vonckists, in the Belgian revolt against Austrian rule in 1789.
Vondel, Joost van den: Dutch poet and dramatist who produced some of the greatest works of Dutch literature.
Vonnegut, Kurt, Jr.: American novelist noted for his pessimistic and satirical novels that use fantasy and science fiction to highlight the horrors and ironies of 20th-century civilization.
Vonones I: king of Parthia (reigned AD 7/8-11).
Voortrekker: (Afrikaans: "Pioneer," or "Leading Migrant"), any of the Afrikaners who left the British Cape Colony in southern Africa to make the Great Trek (q.v.) into the interior from 1835 to ...
vora: city, south-central Portugal. It lies in a fertile valley surrounded by low hills, 70 miles (110 km) east of Lisbon.
Vorarlberg: Bundesland (federal state), far western Austria. It is bounded on the north by Bavaria (Germany) and Lake Constance (Bodensee), on the west by Switzerland (across the Rhine River) and Liechtenstein, ...
Vordingborg: city, Storstroms amtskommune (county), southern Zealand (Sjaelland), Denmark, on Masned Sound. Founded in the 12th century around its castle, which was built by Valdemar I as a ...
Vorkuta: city, Komi republic, northwestern Russia, on the Vorkuta River. Coal mining began in the area in 1932, but the industry and city did not grow significantly until World War II. ...
Vorobyev, Arkady: Soviet weight lifter who won two Olympic gold medals and was the first Soviet light-heavyweight lifter to win the world championship.
Voronezh: oblast (province), western Russia. The oblast has an area of 20,250 square miles (52,400 square km) and lies in the basin of the middle Don River, which bisects it north-south. ...
Voronezh: city and administrative centre of Voronezh oblast (province), western Russia. It lies along the right bank of the Voronezh River above its confluence with the Don. The city was founded ...
Vorontsov, Mikhail Illarionovich: Russian statesman who played a major role, particularly in foreign affairs, during the reign (1741-62) of Empress Elizabeth.
Vorontsov, Mikhail Semyonovich, Prince: Russian military and government official who was an outstanding imperial administrator.
Voroshilov, Kliment Yefremovich: military and political leader of the Soviet Union who served as head of state after the death of his close friend and collaborator Joseph Stalin.
Vorosmarty, Mihaly: poet and dramatist who helped make the literature of Hungary truly Hungarian during the era (1825-49) of social reforms. By ridding Hungarian literature of overwhelming classical and German influence, he ...
Vorschule: (German: "preparatory school"), a type of private elementary school that developed in Prussia and other north German states in the mid-19th century to prepare upper-class children for secondary schools. Theoretically, ...