in Zoroastrianism, the spirit of victory. Together with Mithra, the god of truth, Verethraghna shares martial characteristics that relate him to the Vedic war-god Indra. In Zoroastrian texts, Verethraghna appears ...
novelist, short-story writer, and playwright, most important of the Italian verismo (Realist) school of novelists (see verismo). His reputation was slow to develop, but modern critics have assessed him as ...
French foreign minister who fashioned the alliance with the North American colonists that helped them throw off British rule in the American Revolution; at the same time, he worked, with ...
Italian reformer and most famous of "Old Catholic" bishops in the 16th century who accepted the principles of the Reformation while retaining a historic Roman Catholic episcopate and not withdrawing ...
archaeological site and ancient capital of Macedonia in Imathia nomos (department), northern Greece. It is situated on a plateau 47 miles (75 km) southwest of Thessaloniki, at the eastern foot ...
Italian-born Humanist who wrote an English history that became required reading in schools and influenced the 16th-century English chroniclers Edward Hall and Raphael Holinshed and, through them, Shakespeare.
Roman governor of Germania Superior who, in May 68, put down a rebellion against Nero led by the Gallic governor Vindex. When Galba, the governor of Nearer Spain, succeeded Nero ...
foremost among the Belgian poets who wrote in French. The vigour of his work and the breadth of his vision have been compared to those of Victor Hugo and Walt ...
a philosophical doctrine fundamental to the school of Logical Positivism holding that a statement is meaningful only if it is either empirically verifiable or else tautological (i.e., such that its ...
the semblance of reality in dramatic or nondramatic fiction. The concept implies that either the action represented must be acceptable or convincing according to the audience's own experience or knowledge ...
(Italian: "realism"), a style of Italian opera writing that flourished in the last decade of the 19th century. It was marked by melodramatic, often violent plots with characters drawn from ...
(Italian: "realism"), literary realism as it developed in Italy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its primary exponents were the Sicilian novelists Luigi Capuana and Giovanni Verga. The ...
novelist, literary historian, and critic whose writings in Portuguese and in English on Brazilian literature introduced readers throughout the world both to the literary currents of modern Brazil and to ...
town, Sakha (Yakutiya), far northeastern Russia, on the Yana River near its confluence with the Sartang. Founded as a fort in 1638 and today a minor centre of tin and ...
mountains of Sakha (Yakutiya), far northeastern Russia, extending for 700 miles (1,100 km)-in a huge arc parallel to and east of the lower Lena River-to the Laptev Sea. The range ...
French lyric poet first associated with the Parnassians and later known as a leader of the Symbolists. With Stephane Mallarme and Charles Baudelaire he formed the so-called Decadents.
Dutch artist who created paintings that are among the most beloved and revered images in the history of art. Although only about 36 of his paintings survive, these rare works ...
gilded silver produced either by the fire-gilding method or by electrolysis. In the former, earlier method the object is covered with an amalgam of gold and mercury; the mercury evaporates ...
in masonry, the carving or finishing of building stones with irregular grooves intended to resemble worm tracks. Vermiculation is one form of surface rustication, the intention of which is to ...
clay mineral similar to montmorillonite in structure and, in some cases, composition. Vermiculite is typically formed by the alteration of biotite, and it occurs both as large pseudomorphs replacing biotite ...
city, seat (1862) of Clay county, southeastern South Dakota, U.S. It lies near the confluence of the Vermillion and Missouri rivers, just north of the Nebraska border and about 15 ...
mountain range, Imathia nomos (department), west-central Macedonia, Greece. The range rises west of the broad plain of Kambania, which extends southward to the Gulf of Salonika. The mountains reach a ...
constituent state of the United States of America. One of the six New England states lying in the northeastern corner of the nation, it was admitted to the Union on ...
public, coeducational institution of higher learning in Burlington, Vt., U.S. It is a land-grant university composed of the Graduate College and colleges of agricultural and life sciences, arts and sciences, ...
wine-based fortified drink flavoured with aromatic herbs. The name derives from the German Vermut, or "wormwood" (see ), a bitter herb and traditional ingredient of vermouth and absinthe. As many ...
city, seat (1880) of Uintah county, northeastern Utah, U.S. The city lies along Ashley Creek, a small tributary of Green River, and is located 180 miles (290 km) east-southeast of ...
fall that bridges the Merced River about 4 miles (6 km) above its confluence with Tenaya Creek in Yosemite National Park, east-central California, U.S. It is one of the park's ...
the artificial exposure of plants (or seeds) to low temperatures in order to stimulate flowering or to enhance seed production. By satisfying the cold requirement of many temperate-zone plants, flowering ...
handmade Caucasian floor covering that was formerly termed a sileh. It is usually woven in two pieces joined at the middle, with a design composed of squarish ...
linguistic explanation of the apparent exceptions to Grimm's law (q.v.), which first demonstrated the significant role that accent (stress) played in linguistic change in the Germanic languages. It provided further ...
French landscape and marine painter whose finest works, the series of 15 "Ports of France" (1754-65; Louvre), constitute a remarkable record of 18th-century life.
method for producing synthetic rubies and sapphires. Originally developed (1902) by a French chemist, Auguste Verneuil, the process produces a boule (a mass of alumina with the same physical and ...
instrument for making very accurate linear measurements introduced in 1631 by Pierre Vernier of France. It utilizes two graduated scales: a main scale similar to that on a ruler and ...
French mathematician and government official who is best remembered for his invention of the vernier caliper, an instrument for making accurate linear measurements. Taught by his scientist-father, Claude Vernier, he ...
lustrous lacquer substitute widely used in the 18th century to decorate furniture and such personal articles as brise fans and snuffboxes. The process of adding bronze or gold powder to ...
city, southern British Columbia, Canada. It lies in Okanagan Lake country, 274 miles (441 km) northeast of Vancouver. Pioneers called the early settlement Priest's Valley owing to a missionary outpost ...
commercial centre of Greek Macedonia and capital of the nomos (department) of Imathia, Greece. It lies on a plateau at the western edge of the Thessaloniki (Salonika) plain, at the ...
city, episcopal see, and capital of Verona provincia, Veneto regione, northern Italy. It lies at the foot of the Lessini Mountains, 65 miles (105 km) west of Venice, and is ...
(Oct. 20-Dec. 14, 1822), the last of the meetings held by the European powers in accordance with the terms of the Quadruple Alliance (1815) between Russia, Prussia, Austria, and Great ...
one of the major painters of the 16th-century Venetian school. His works usually are huge, vastly peopled canvases depicting allegorical, biblical, or historical subjects in splendid colour and set in ...
renowned legendary woman who, moved by the sight of Christ carrying his cross to Golgotha, gave him her kerchief to wipe his brow, after which he handed it back imprinted ...
suspension bridge spanning New York Harbor from Brooklyn to Staten Island, built by Othmar H. Ammann from 1959 to 1964. Its 4,260-foot (1,298-metre) main span was, until the completion of ...
(French: "Glomyized glass"), glass engraved on the back that has been covered by unfired painting or, usually, gold or silver leaf. The method owes its name to Jean-Baptiste Glomy (d. ...
Roman magistrate notorious for his misgovernment of Sicily. His trial pointed up the extent of official corruption in the Roman provinces during the Late Republic. The son of an undistinguished ...
zoologist and naturalist who, as curator of zoology at the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University, developed one of the largest, most valuable zoological collections in the United ...
Roman freedman who became a learned scholar and grammarian and the most famous teacher of his day. Verrius Flaccus introduced the principle of competition among his pupils and awarded old ...
15th-century Florentine sculptor and painter and the teacher of Leonardo da Vinci. His equestrian statue of Bartolomeo Colleoni, erected in Venice in 1496, is particularly important.
genus of lichens of the family Verrucariaceae, often found as a black crust covering seashore rocks. Along with the effects of weathering, Verrucaria helps break down limestone rocks by secreting ...
(French: "society verse"), light poetry written with particular wit and polish and intended for a limited, sophisticated audience. It has flourished in cultured societies, particularly in court circles and literary ...
(French: "free verse"), 19th-century poetic innovation that liberated French poetry from its traditional prosodic rules. In vers libre, the basic metrical unit is the phrase rather than a line of ...
capital city of Yvelines departement, Paris region, northern France, 14 mi (22 km) southwest of Paris. The city developed around the 17th-century palace built by Louis XIV, the principal residence ...
former French royal residence and centre of government, now a national landmark. It is located in the city of Versailles, Yvelines departement, Ile-de-France region, ...
peace document signed at the end of World War I by the Allied and Associated Powers and by Germany in the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles, France, ...
a single line of metrical composition; more broadly, the metrical composition itself or the poetic technique of a particular poem. Although verse is sometimes used as a synonym for poetry, ...
a short verse, especially from a sacred book, such as those found in the Song of Solomon and the Psalms, or a stanza form modeled on such biblical verse. The ...
in vertebrate animals, the flexible column extending from neck to tail, made of a series of bones, the vertebrae. The major function of the vertebral column is protection of the ...
any animal of the subphylum Vertebrata, the predominant subphylum of the phylum Chordata. They have backbones, from which they derive their name. The vertebrates are also characterized by a muscular ...
sensation that a person's surroundings are rotating or that he himself is revolving. Usually the state produces dizziness, mental bewilderment, and confusion. If the sensation is intense enough, the person ...
one of the 12 soil orders in the U.S. Soil Taxonomy. Vertisols are clay-rich soils that undergo significant vertical cracking during the dry seasons. Typically forming under grassland vegetation in ...
one of the 30 soil groups in the classification system of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Vertisols are characterized by a clay-size-particle content of 30 percent or more by ...
Soviet motion-picture director whose kino-glaz ("film-eye") theory-that the camera is an instrument, much like the human eye, that is best used to explore the actual happenings of real life-had an ...
Roman emperor jointly (161-169) with Marcus Aurelius. Though he enjoyed equal constitutional status and powers, he did not have equal authority, nor did he seem capable of bearing his share ...
