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W particle ... wainscot

W particle: one of two massive electrically charged subatomic particles that are thought to transmit the weak force-that is, the force that governs radioactive decay in certain kinds of atomic nuclei. According ...
W.H., Mr.: person known only by his initials, to whom the first edition of William Shakespeare's sonnets (1609) was dedicated:To the onlie begetter ofThese insung sonnetsMr. W.H. all happinesseAnd that eternitiePromisedbyOur ever-living ...
W.R. Grace & Co.: American industrial company, with international interests in specialty chemicals, construction materials, coatings, and sealants. It is headquartered in Columbia, Maryland.
Wa: hill-dwelling peoples of eastern Myanmar (Burma), where they are generally called Lawa, and southwestern Yunnan province of China, where they are generally called Va, or Wa. They speak an Austro-Asiatic ...
Wa-fang-tien: city in Liaoning sheng (province), China. The city is situated in the centre of the Liaotung Peninsula and is an important market centre for the agriculture and fruit industry of ...
Waagenoceras: genus of extinct cephalopods (animals related to the modern squid, octopus, and nautilus) found as fossils in Permian marine rocks (from about 286 to 245 million years ago). Waagenoceras has ...
Waals, Johannes Diederik van der: Dutch physicist, winner of the 1910 Nobel Prize for Physics for his research on the gaseous and liquid states of matter. His work made the study of temperatures near absolute ...
Wabana: town, southeastern Newfoundland, Canada, just northwest of St. John's, on Bell Island in Conception Bay. Located in the centre of one of the world's richest deposits of red hematite iron ...
Wabar Craters: group of meteorite craters discovered in 1932 in the Rub' al-Khali desert of Saudi Arabia. The largest crater is 330 feet (100 m) in diameter, 40 feet (12 m) deep, ...
Wabash: city, seat (1835) of Wabash county, northeastern Indiana, U.S., on the Wabash River, 45 miles (72 km) west-southwest of Fort Wayne. It was platted in 1834 on land ceded to ...
Wabash River: largest southward-flowing tributary of the Ohio River, rising in Grand Lake, western Ohio. It flows generally westward across Indiana past the cities of Huntington, Wabash, Logansport, and Lafayette, then southward ...
Waccho: king of the Lombards in the period preceding the invasion of Italy, when they occupied territory roughly coinciding with Austria north of the Danube River.
Wace: Anglo-Norman author of two verse chronicles, the Roman de Brut (1155) and the Roman de Rou (1160-74), named respectively after the reputed founders of the Britons and Normans.
Wach, Joachim: Protestant theologian and one of the foremost scholars in the modern study of religion.
Wachsmann, Konrad: German-born American architect notable for his contributions to the mass production of building components.
Wackenroder, Wilhelm Heinrich: writer and critic who was the originator, with his friend Ludwig Tieck, of some of the most important ideas of German Romanticism.
Wackernagel, Jacob: Swiss historical and comparative linguist known primarily for his monumental work on Sanskrit.
Waco: city, seat (1850) of McLennan county, north-central Texas, U.S. Waco lies along the Brazos River, some 100 miles (160 km) south of Dallas. It was founded in 1849 on the ...
wad: black and earthy substance that consists mainly of hydrated manganese oxides; it is an important ore of manganese. It varies considerably in chemical composition and contains different impurities, often in ...
Wad Madani: city, east-central Sudan. Wad Madani lies on the west bank of the Blue Nile, 85 miles (136 km) southeast of Khartoum, at an elevation of 1,348 feet (411 m). It ...
Wadai: historical African kingdom east of Lake Chad and west of Darfur, in what is now the Ouaddai (q.v.) region of eastern Chad. It was founded in the 16th century, and ...
Waddenzee: shallow inlet of the North Sea between the West Frisian Islands and the northern Netherlands mainland. The inlet extends from Noord-Holland to the northeast, where the islands gradually curve toward ...
Waddington, C.H.: British embryologist, geneticist, and philosopher of science.
Waddington, William Henry: French scholar, diplomat, and politician. His appointment as French premier by the moderate Republicans, largely because of his cautious and colourless personality, marked the beginning of a trend in the ...
Wade, Benjamin F.: U.S. senator during the Civil War whose radical views brought him into conflict with presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson.
Wade, Sir Thomas Francis: British diplomatist and Sinologist who developed the famous Wade-Giles system of romanizing the Chinese language.
Wade-Davis Bill: (1864), unsuccessful attempt by Radical Republicans and others in the U.S. Congress to set Reconstruction policy before the end of the Civil War. The bill, sponsored by senators Benjamin F. ...
Wade-Giles romanization: system of romanizing the modern Chinese written language, originally devised to simplify Chinese language characters for the Western world. Initiated by Sir Thomas Francis Wade (q.v.), the system was modified ...
Wadgaon, Convention of: (Jan. 13, 1779), compact concluded after the First Maratha War in India (1775-82), marking the end of British efforts to intervene in Maratha affairs by making Raghunath Rao peshwa (the ...
Wafd: (Arabic: "Egyptian Delegation"), nationalist political party that was instrumental in gaining Egyptian independence from Britain. Organized by Sa'd Zaghlul on Nov. 13, 1918, as a permanent delegation of the Egyptian ...
waffle: crisp raised cake baked in a waffle iron, a hinged metal griddle with a honeycombed or fancifully engraved surface that allows a thin layer of batter to cook evenly and ...
wage and salary: income derived from human labour. Technically, all payments for the use of labour, mental or physical, are covered, but in ordinary usage the terms exclude income of the self-employed and ...
wage theory: portion of economic theory that attempts to explain the determination of the payment of labour.
wage-price control: setting of government guidelines for limiting increases in wages and prices. It is a principal tool in incomes policy (q.v.).
Wagga Wagga: city, southeastern New South Wales, Australia, situated on the Murrumbidgee River. A service centre for the fertile Riverina district (chiefly wheat and sheep), it is also the site of an ...
Wagner Act: the single most important piece of labour legislation enacted in the United States in the 20th century. It was enacted to eliminate employers' interference with the autonomous organization of workers ...
Wagner, Carl: German physical chemist and metallurgist who helped advance the understanding of the chemistry of solid-state materials, especially the effects of imperfections at the atomic level on the properties of compounds ...
Wagner, Cosima: wife of the composer Richard Wagner and director of the Bayreuth Festivals from his death in 1883 to 1908.
Wagner, Honus: American professional baseball player, one of the first five men elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame (1936). He was generally considered the greatest shortstop in baseball history and by ...
Wagner, Otto: Austrian architect and teacher, generally held to be a founder and leader of the modern movement in European architecture.
Wagner, Richard: German dramatic composer and theorist whose operas and music had a revolutionary influence on the course of Western music, either by extension of his discoveries or reaction against them. Among ...
Wagner, Robert F: U.S. senator and leading architect of the modern welfare state.
Wagner, Robert F.: American Democratic Party politician and mayor of New York City (1954-65).
Wagner-Jauregg, Julius: Austrian psychiatrist and neurologist whose treatment of syphilitic meningoencephalitis, or general paresis, by the artificial induction of malaria constituted the first example of shock therapy. The method brought a previously ...
wagon: musical instrument, a Japanese six-stringed board zither with movable bridges. It is closely connected with courtly, Shinto, and vocal music.
wagon: four-wheeled vehicle designed to be drawn by draft animals and known to have been used as early as the 1st century BC, incorporating such earlier innovations as the spoked wheel ...
wagon train: caravan of wagons organized by settlers in the United States for emigration to the West during the late 18th and most of the 19th centuries. Composed of up to 100 ...
wagonette: horse-drawn carriage designed to carry a large number of passengers who sat on long bench-style seats facing each other. The driver's seat was separate and mounted from the front, while ...
Wagram, Battle of: (July 5-6, 1809), victory for Napoleon, which forced Austria to sign an armistice and led eventually to the Treaty of Schonbrunn in October, ending Austria's 1809 war against the French ...
wagtail: any of the 7 to 10 species of the bird genus Motacilla, of the family Motacillidae, together with the forest wagtail (Dendronanthus indicus) of Asia. Wagtails are strongly patterned birds ...
Wah: town, Punjab province, northern Pakistan. It is connected by road with Peshawar and Rawalpindi and is a growing industrial centre. Wah's industries include one of the largest cement factories in ...
Wahat al-Kharijah, Al-: oasis in the Libyan (Western) Desert, part of Al-Wadi al-Jadid ("New Valley") muhafazah (governorate), in south-central Egypt. It is situated about 110 miles (180 km) west-southwest of Naj' Hammadi, to ...
Wahhab, Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-: theologian and founder of the Wahhabi movement, which attempted a return to the "true" principles of Islam.
Wahhabi: any member of the Muslim puritan movement founded by Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab in the 18th century in Najd, central Arabia, and adopted in 1744 by the Sa'udi family.
Wahiawa: city, Honolulu county, central Oahu island, Hawaii, U.S. Lying 22 miles (35 km) northwest of Honolulu, it is situated on the 1,000-foot- (300-metre-) high Leilehua Plateau between the two forks ...
wahoo: (Acanthocybium solanderi), swift-moving, powerful, predacious food and game fish of the family Scombridae (order Perciformes) found worldwide, especially in the tropics. The wahoo is a slim, streamlined fish with sharp-toothed, ...
Wahpeton: city, seat (1873) of Richland county, southeastern North Dakota, U.S. It lies on the Minnesota border across from Breckenridge, Minnesota, at the point where the Bois de Sioux and Otter ...
Waialeale, Mount: peak, central Kauai island, Hawaii, U.S. Waialeale (Hawaiian: "Rippling Water"), with an elevation of 5,148 feet (1,569 metres), is a dissected (eroded) dome. It is part of a central mountain ...
Waianae Range: mountain range forming the western coast of Oahu island, Hawaii, U.S. The range is the oldest area of volcanic activity on the island. It is 22 miles (35 km) long ...
Waiau River: river in southwestern South Island, New Zealand. It rises in Lake Manapouri and flows south through the Southland district for 135 miles (217 km) to enter Te Waewae Bay of ...
Waiau River: river in eastern South Island, New Zealand. It rises in the Spenser Mountains and flows south and east for 105 miles (169 km) to enter the Pacific Ocean, 6 miles ...
Waigeo Island: largest island of the Raja Ampat group in the Dampier Strait, Irian Jaya provinsi ("province"), Indonesia. Waigeo Island lies about 40 miles (64 km) northwest of the Doberai (Vogelkop) Peninsula ...
Waiheke Island: island, a volcanic formation in southern Hauraki Gulf, off the east coast of North Island, Auckland local government region, New Zealand. It is the fifth largest island of New Zealand, ...
Waihi: town, Waikato local government region, northern North Island, New Zealand, on the Ohinemuri River (tributary of the Waihou). Situated at the base of the Coromandel Peninsula on the northern end ...
Waikaremoana, Lake: lake in eastern North Island, New Zealand. Created by a landslide damming the Waikare Taheke River, the 21-square-mile (54-square-kilometre) lake, measuring 12 miles (19 km) by 6 miles (10 km), ...
Waikato: local government region, northern North Island, New Zealand. It includes the mountainous Coromandel Peninsula and adjacent Hauraki Plains in the northeast; the fertile Waikato River valley in the northwest; the ...
Waikato River: river, the longest in New Zealand, in central North Island. Rising on the slopes of Mount Ruapehu in Tongariro National Park as the Tongariro River, it flows north through Lake ...
Waikiki: resort district, southeastern Honolulu (city), Hawaii, U.S. On the southern coast of Oahu island, Waikiki (Hawaiian: "Spurting Water") is situated on Mamala Bay between the Ala Wai Canal (north and ...
Wailua River: river, Kauai island, Hawaii, U.S. It flows from the slopes of Mount Waialeale about 10 miles (16 km) inland to the east-central coast. At the southern end of the river ...
Wailuku: city, seat of Maui county, northern Maui island, Hawaii, U.S. It is situated on an isthmus at the mouth of the Iao Valley and the base of Maui's western mountains. ...
Waimakariri River: river in east-central South Island, New Zealand. It rises in the Southern Alps and flows 100 miles (160 km) southeast to Pegasus Bay of the Pacific Ocean, 8 miles (13 ...
Waimea: town, Kauai county, southwestern Kauai island, Hawaii, U.S. Waimea, whose name means "Reddish Water," is situated on Waimea Bay at the mouth of the Waimea River. The valleys of the ...
Waimea: village, Hawaii county, north-central Hawaii island, Hawaii, U.S. It is situated on the Mauna Kea-Kohala Saddle (2,669 feet [814 metres]), northeast of Kailua-Kona. In the 1790s the English navigator George ...
Wain, John: English novelist and poet whose early works caused him, by their radical tone, to be spoken of as one of the "Angry Young Men" of the 1950s. He was also ...
Wainganga River: river, tributary of the Godavari River, western India. It rises in the Mahadeo Hills in south-central Madhya Pradesh state and flows 360 miles (580 km) south to join the Wardha ...
wainscot: interior paneling in general and, more specifically, paneling that covers only the lower portion of an interior wall or partition. It has a decorative or protective function and is usually ...