Dutch poet, scholar, and literary historian who played an important role in the literary life of The Netherlands in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
radio telescope system situated on the plains of San Agustin near Socorro, New Mexico, U.S. The VLA went into operation in 1980 and is the most powerful radio telescope in ...
Renaissance Flemish physician who revolutionized the study of biology and the practice of medicine by his careful description of the anatomy of the human body. Basing his observations on dissections ...
American financier, once considered the boy wonder of international finance, who later became a fugitive from U.S. and other legal authorities. He was a key figure in certain American financial ...
viral disease of swine causing eruption of painful blisters on feet and snout. Blisters emerge 24 to 72 hours after exposure and are accompanied by fever, which lasts 24 to ...
viral disease causing blisters in the mouths of cattle, horses, and mules and on the snouts and feet of swine. Horses and cattle with vesicular stomatitis become feverish two to ...
inflammation and infection of the seminal vesicles in the male reproductive tract. The seminal vesicles are ductlike glands that add fluid secretions to the seminal fluid as it passes from ...
town, capital of Haute-Saone departement, Franche-Comte region, eastern France. It lies between the isolated conical hill, La Motte (1,263 ft [384 m]), and the Durgeon River. The hill is crowned ...
Roman emperor (AD 69-79) who, though of humble birth, became the founder of the Flavian dynasty after the civil wars that followed Nero's death in 68. His fiscal reforms and ...
large family of bats numbering more than 400 species. They are found worldwide in both tropical and temperate regions, their habitats ranging from tropical forest to desert.
evening prayer of thanksgiving and praise in Roman Catholic and certain other Christian liturgy. Vespers and lauds (morning prayer) are the oldest and most important of the traditional liturgy of ...
merchant and explorer-navigator who took part in early voyages to the New World (1499-1500, 1501-02) and occupied the influential post of piloto mayor ("master navigator") in Seville (1508-12). The name ...
in botany, the most specialized and efficient conducting structure of xylem (fluid-conducting tissues). Characteristic of most flowering plants and absent from most gymnosperms and ferns, vessels are thought to have ...
southernmost fylke (county) of Norway, extending inland from the North Sea and its arm, the Skagerrak, to the southern fringes of the Setes valley. A mild marine climate favours horticulture, ...
in astronomy, the brightest asteroid, though not the largest, and the only one ever visible with the naked eye. Found on March 29, 1807, by Heinrich Wilhelm Matthaus Olbers, it ...
in Roman religion, goddess of the hearth, identified with the Greek Hestia. The lack of an easy source of fire in the early Roman community placed a special premium on ...
in Roman religion, any of the six priestesses, representing the daughters of the royal house, who tended the state cult of Vesta, the goddess of the hearth. The cult is ...
prolific Dutch writer whose early novels, with their unrelenting exposure of the barrenness of middle-class provincial life, shocked the bourgeois world of the 1930s.
island group, in the Norwegian Sea, northern Norway. Forming the northern end of the Lofoten-Vesteralen archipelago, the Vesteralen include, from east to west, Hinn Island (largest Norwegian island but for ...
fjord, in the Norwegian Sea off the northwestern coast of Norway. Formed by the Norwegian mainland to the east and the Lofoten islands to the north and west, Vestfjorden is ...
fylke (county), southeastern Norway. Lying along the western shore of Oslo Fjord, the county seat is Tonsberg (q.v.), Norway's oldest town. Vestfold is known for its prehistoric Bronze Age mounds ...
nerve in the human ear, serving the organs of equilibrium and of hearing. It consists of two anatomically and functionally distinct parts: the cochlear nerve, distributed to the hearing organ, ...
ancient Sabine tribe, which occupied the eastern and northern bank of the Aternus (modern Aterno) River in central Italy. They entered into the Roman alliance in 302 BC and remained ...
geographical region, southwestern Norway. Its 22,592 square-mile (58,512 square-kilometre) area embraces the fylker (counties) of Rogaland, Hordaland, Sogn og Fjordane, and More og Romsdal. Providing the most spectacular fjord and ...
group of 14 small Icelandic islands off Iceland's southern shore. They have a total area of about 8 square miles (21 square km). Volcanic in origin, the islands are rocky ...
town, southern Iceland, on Heima Island (Heimaey), the largest of the Vestmann Islands (Vestmannaeyjar). One of the older Icelandic settlements, it grew as a fishing village. It is almost entirely ...
a family of dancers who dominated French ballet for nearly a century, most notably Gaetan Vestris (in full Gaetano Appoline Baldassare Vestri, or Vestris; b. April 18, 1729, Florence, Italy, ...
married name (from 1838) Lucia Elizabeth, or Elizabetta, Mathews, nee Bartolozzi British actress, opera singer, and manager who inaugurated tasteful and beautiful stage decor and set a standard in stage ...
amtskommune (county), western Sjaelland (Zealand), Denmark, created in 1970 from the former counties of Soro and Holbaek, with an area of 1,155 sq mi (2,991 sq km). The northern coast ...
common silicate mineral that occurs in crystalline limestones near their contacts with igneous rocks, and in beds of marble and calcsilicate granulite that are associated with gneiss and mica schist. ...
active volcano that rises above the Bay of Naples on the plain of Campania in southern Italy. Its western base rests almost upon the bay. The height of the cone ...
town and seat of Veszprem megye (county), western Hungary. It lies along the Sed River, spanned there by a viaduct, in the Bakony Mountains, southwest of Budapest. The town already ...
megye (county), western Hungary, extending north from Lake Balaton. It consists largely of the forested Bakony Mountains (q.v.). Lowlands in the northwest are agriculturally poor, but the production of wines ...
any herbaceous plant of the genus Vicia, within the pea family (Fabaceae). About 150 species are known. The plants are 30-120 cm (1-4 feet) tall, with trailing or climbing stems ...
in the United States, day (November 11) honouring veterans of the armed forces and those killed in the country's wars. The observance originated in 1921 as Armistice Day with the ...
American organization created in 1913-14 by the merger of three national war-veteran societies that were founded in 1899, shortly after the Spanish-American War. The American Veterans of Foreign Service, the ...
the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of the diseases of domestic animals and the management of other animal disorders. The field also deals with those diseases that are intercommunicable between animals ...
perennial grass of the family Poaceae, native to tropical Asia and also introduced into the tropics of both hemispheres. Its thick, fragrant roots contain an oil used in perfumes. It ...
municipality, West Flanders province, western Belgium. The municipality lies at the junction of four canals, northeast of Dunkerque. It was founded about 870 by Baldwin I Iron-Arm (or Ferreus), first ...
village, Yonne departement, Bourgogne region, north-central France. The village lies on a hill on the left bank of the Cure River. Its history is tied to its great Benedictine abbey, ...
conventionally defined portion of the electromagnetic spectrum including any radiation with a wavelength between 1 and 10 metres and a frequency between 300 and 30 megahertz. VHF signals are widely ...
Canadian state-owned passenger-railway system. Incorporated in 1977 and established in 1978 as a crown corporation independent of the Canadian National (CN) and Canadian Pacific (CP) railroads, VIA gradually assumed full ...
one of the largest and foremost communications and media conglomerates in the United States. The present form of the corporation dates from 1994 when Viacom Inc., which owned radio and ...
type of long bridge or series of bridges, usually supported by a series of arches or on spans between tall towers. The purpose of a viaduct is to carry a ...
trade name of the first oral drug for male impotence, introduced by the pharmaceutical company Pfizer, Inc., in 1998. Also known by the chemical name sildenafil citrate, it is one ...
spa and tourist resort, Haute-Savoie departement, Rhone-Alpes region, eastern France, on the southern shore of Lake Geneva, opposite Lausanne on the Swiss shore of ...
town and capital of Viana do Castelo distrito ("district"), northwestern Portugal. It lies at the mouth of the Lima River, north of Porto. Mount Santa Luzia dominates the town, which ...
town, Lucca provincia, Toscana (Tuscany) regione, central Italy. It lies along the Ligurian Sea, south of the Apuan Alps, just northwest of Pisa. Sheltered by dense pine woods and possessing ...
town, capital of Vibo Valentia provincia, Calabria regione, southern Italy. It lies near the Gulf of Sant'Eufemia. It originated as the ancient Greek town of Hipponion and was praised in ...
city, seat of Viborg amtskommune (county commune), north-central Jutland, Denmark. It lies northwest of Arhus. Originally a centre of pagan worship, Viborg (English: "sacred hill") was a royal town and ...
percussion instrument that has tuned metal bars and is similar in shape to a xylophone. Felt or wool beaters are used to strike the bars, giving a soft, mellow tone ...
periodic back-and-forth motion of the particles of an elastic body or medium, commonly resulting when almost any physical system is displaced from its equilibrium condition and allowed to respond to ...
(genus Vibrio), any of a group of comma-shaped bacteria in the family Vibrionaceae. Vibrios are aquatic microorganisms, some species of which cause serious diseases in humans and other animals.
(genus Viburnum), any of about 200 shrubs and small trees belonging to the family Caprifoliaceae, native to temperate and subtropical Eurasia and North America, with about 16 species native to ...
city, Barcelona provincia, in the comunidad autonoma ("autonomous community") of Catalonia, northeastern Spain. The city is situated on the Vic Plain and lies along the Meder River, which is an ...
(from Latin vicarius, "substitute"), an official acting in some special way for a superior, primarily an ecclesiastical title in the Christian Church. In the Roman Empire as reorganized by Emperor ...
partido (political subdivision) of Gran (Greater) Buenos Aires, Arg., directly north of the city of Buenos Aires, in Buenos Aires province, on the Rio de la Plata estuary. Colonization of ...
city, episcopal see, and capital of Vicenza province, Veneto region, northern Italy, traversed by the Bacchiglione and Retrone rivers, at the eastern end of the valley between the Monti Lessini ...
one who rules a country or province as the representative of his sovereign or king and who is empowered to act in the sovereign's name. Viceroy (virrey) was the title ...
departamento, eastern Colombia. It lies in the Llanos (plains) of the Orinoco River basin and is bounded north and east by Venezuela and south by the Guaviare River. It is ...
centre of a rayon (sector), Ivanovo oblast (province), western Russia. It lies about 18 miles (30 km) south of the Volga River and 40 miles (64 km) northeast of Ivanovo ...
town, Allier departement, Auvergne region, central France. It lies on the east bank of the Allier River. Vichy is the chief spa of France. The town, largely modern and with ...
(July 1940-September 1944), France under the regime of Marshal Philippe Petain from the Nazi German defeat of France to the Allied liberation in World War II.
a measure of the hardness of a material, calculated from the size of an impression produced under load by a pyramid-shaped diamond indenter. Devised in the 1920s by engineers at ...
