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Wilson, James ... wing
Wilson, James
colonial American lawyer and political theorist, signer of the Declaration of Independence, and member of the Constitutional Convention of 1787.
Wilson, Kenneth Geddes
American physicist who was awarded the 1982 Nobel Prize for Physics for his development of a general procedure for constructing improved theories concerning the transformations of matter called continuous, or ...
Wilson, Lanford
American playwright, a pioneer of the Off-Off-Broadway and regional theatre movements. His plays are known for experimental staging, simultaneous dialogue, and deferred character exposition. He won a 1980 Pulitzer Prize ...
Wilson, Mount
peak (5,710 feet [1,740 metres]) in the San Gabriel Mountains of the Angeles National Forest, southern California, U.S. It lies just northeast of Pasadena. A highway leads to the summit, ...
Wilson, Richard
one of the earliest major British landscape painters, whose works combine a mood of classical serenity with picturesque effects.
Wilson, Robert Woodrow
American radio astronomer who shared, with Arno Penzias, the 1978 Nobel Prize for Physics for a discovery that supported the big-bang model of creation. (Soviet physicist Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa also ...
Wilson, Sir Angus
British writer whose fiction-sometimes serious, sometimes richly satirical-portrays conflicts in contemporary English social and intellectual life.
Wilson, Sir Henry Hughes, Baronet
British field marshal, chief of the British imperial general staff, and main military adviser to Prime Minister David Lloyd George in the last year of World War I. While in ...
Wilson, William Julius
American sociologist whose views on race and urban poverty helped shape U.S. public policy and academic discourse.
Wilson, Woodrow
28th president of the United States (1913-21), an American scholar and statesman best remembered for his legislative accomplishments and his high-minded idealism. Wilson led his country into World War I ...
wilt
common symptom of plant disease resulting from a water loss in leaves and stems. Affected parts lose their turgidity and droop. Specific wilt diseases-caused by a variety of fungi, bacteria, ...
Wilton
town ("parish"), Salisbury district, administrative and historic county of Wiltshire, England. The town is internationally known for its carpets. The Royal Carpet Factory was built there in 1655, and the ...
Wiltshire
administrative, geographic, and historic county of southern England, on a low plateau draining into the basins of the Bristol Channel, the English Channel, and the eastward-flowing River Thames. Trowbridge is ...
Wimbledon
neighbourhood in Merton, an outer borough of London. Located about 8 miles (13 km) southwest of the City of London, it is the site of the annual All-England Championships, better ...
Wimborne Minster
town ("parish"), East Dorset district, administrative and historic county of Dorset, England, on the River Allen. Cuthburga and Cwenburh, sisters of King Ine of Wessex, founded a convent there in ...
Wimmera
region, west-central Victoria, Australia. First surveyed (1836) by Thomas Mitchell, the area was settled in the 1860s. Its generally level terrain, in the basin of the north-flowing, dissipative Wimmera River, ...
wimple
headdress worn by women over the head and around the neck, cheeks, and chin. From the late 12th until the beginning of the 14th century, it was worn extensively throughout ...
Winam Gulf
gulf of the northeastern corner of Lake Victoria, southwestern Kenya, East Africa. It is a shallow inlet, 35 mi (56 km) long and 15 mi wide, and is connected to ...
Winchcombe
village ("parish"), Tewkesbury borough, administrative and historic county of Gloucestershire, England, on the River Isbourne, near the Cotswolds. The site was first settled when Cenwulf, king of Mercia (reigned 796-821), ...
Winchell, Walter
U.S. journalist and broadcaster whose newspaper columns and radio broadcasts containing news and gossip gave him a massive audience and much influence in the United States in the 1930s, '40s, ...
Winchelsea
place in Rother district, administrative county of East Sussex, historic county of Sussex, England, with historical importance as a former English Channel port and as an example of medieval town ...
Winchelsey, Robert
archbishop of Canterbury who was a champion of clerical privilege and a leading opponent of kings Edward I and Edward II of England.
Winchester
town and city (district), in the central part of the administrative and historic county of Hampshire, England, best known for its cathedral. The town lies in the valley of the ...
Winchester
city, seat (1738) of Frederick county (though administratively independent of it), northern Virginia, U.S. It lies at the northern end of the Shenandoah Valley, 70 miles (113 km) northwest of ...
Winchester College
one of the oldest of the great public schools of England, in Winchester, Hampshire. Its formal name, St. Mary College of Winchester near Winchester, dates from 1382, when it was ...
Winchester school
painting style of English illuminated manuscripts produced primarily at Winchester but also at Canterbury and in various southern monasteries in the 10th and early 11th centuries. The Winchester style is ...
Winchester, Oliver Fisher
U.S. manufacturer of guns and ammunition who developed the Winchester rifle and made the Winchester Repeating Arms Company a success by the shrewd purchase and improvement of the inventions of ...
Winckelmann, Johann
German archaeologist and art historian whose writings directed popular taste toward classical art, particularly that of ancient Greece, and influenced not only Western painting and sculpture but also literature and ...
Winckler, Hugo
German archaeologist and historian whose excavations at Bogazkoy, in Turkey, disclosed the capital of the Hittite empire, Hattusa, and yielded thousands of cuneiform tablets from which much of Hittite history ...
wind
in climatology, the movement of air relative to the surface of the Earth. Winds play a significant role in determining and controlling climate and weather.
Wind Cave National Park
scenic area in southwestern South Dakota, U.S., about 35 miles (56 km) south-southwest of Rapid City. It was established in 1903 to preserve a series of limestone caverns and a ...
wind chill
a measure of the rate of heat loss from skin that is exposed to the air. It is based on the fact that, as wind speeds increase, the heat loss ...
wind instrument
any musical instrument that uses air as the primary vibrating medium for the production of sound.
Wind River
river in west-central Wyoming, U.S. It rises in several branches at the northern edge of the Wind River Range in the Shoshone National Forest and flows generally southeast past Dubois ...
Wind River Range
mountain range in the central Rocky Mountains, west-central Wyoming, U.S. The range extends for 100 miles (160 km) northwest-southeast to the Sweetwater River and is part of the Continental Divide. ...
wind rose
map diagram that summarizes information about the wind at a particular location over a specified time period. A wind rose was also, before the use of magnetic compasses, a guide ...
wind shear
rapid change in wind velocity or direction. A very narrow zone of abrupt velocity change is known as a shear line. Wind shear is observed both near the ground and ...
wind tunnel
device for producing a controlled stream of air in order to study the effects of movement through air or resistance to moving air on models of aircraft and other machines ...
wind-bell
a bell or a cluster of resonating pieces that are moved and sounded by the wind. The wind-bell has three basic forms: (1) a cluster of small pieces of metal, ...
wind-blown moss
any plant of the genus Dicranum (order Bryales), numbering several hundred species distributed primarily throughout the Northern Hemisphere. They form dense cushions on soil, logs, or rocks. More than 20 ...
Windaus, Adolf
German organic chemist, winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1928 for research on substances, notably vitamin D, that play important biological roles.
Windermere
lake, largest in England, in the southeastern part of the Lake District, in the administrative county of Cumbria, along the border between the historic counties of Lancashire and Westmorland. The ...
Windham
county, southeastern Vermont, U.S., bounded to the west by the Green Mountains, to the south by Massachusetts, and to the east by New Hampshire (the Connecticut River constitutes the border). ...
Windham
town (township), Windham county, east-central Connecticut, U.S. It is situated in an area drained by the Willimantic and Natchaug rivers, which merge southeast of Willimantic to form the Shetucket. The ...
Windham
county, northeastern Connecticut, U.S. It is bordered to the north by Massachusetts and to the east by Rhode Island and consists of a hilly region forested by hardwoods and pines. ...
Windhoek
town, capital of Namibia, located roughly in the centre of the country. It lies at an elevation of 5,428 feet (1,654 metres) and is about 400 miles (650 km) north ...
Windischgratz, Alfred, Prince zu
Austrian field marshal who was the leader of the reactionary faction of the Habsburg empire during the 1848 revolutions.
windmill
device for tapping the energy of the wind by means of sails mounted on a rotating shaft. The sails are mounted at an angle or are given a slight twist ...
window
opening in the wall of a building for the admission of light and air; windows are often arranged also for the purposes of architectural decoration. Since early times, the openings ...
window fly
(family Scenopinidae), any of a group of rare, black flies (order Diptera) that are a little smaller than the housefly. The adults are seen on windows; the larvae live in ...
Window Rock
capital of the extensive Navajo Nation Reservation, Apache county, northeastern Arizona, U.S. It lies 23 miles (37 km) northwest of Gallup, New Mexico. Established in 1936 as the Central Agency ...
window-winged moth
any of the several hundred species of tropical insects constituting the family Thyrididae (order Lepidoptera). They are generally dark-coloured and small to medium-sized, with a wingspan of from 10 to ...
windrower
self-propelled or tractor-drawn farm machine for cutting grain and laying the stalks in windrows for later threshing and cleaning. The modern descendant of the header, the windrower is used to ...
Winds, Tower of the
("Timepiece"), building in Athens erected about 100-50 BC by Andronicus of Cyrrhus for measuring time. Still standing, it is an octagonal marble structure, 42 feet (12.8 m) high and 26 ...
Windscale
nuclear reactor facility and plutonium production plant in the county of Cumberland (now part of Cumbria), in northwestern England, that in 1957 was the site of the United Kingdom's most ...
Windsor
town (township), Hartford county, north-central Connecticut, U.S. It is a northern suburb of the city of Hartford. Windsor was the site of the first English settlement of any kind in ...
Windsor
town, part of the Richmond-Windsor urban area, New South Wales, Australia, on the Hawkesbury River. In 1794, Major Francis Grose, then acting governor, placed 22 settlers in the riverside district ...
Windsor
town, seat of Hants county, Nova Scotia, Canada. It lies at the confluence of the Avon and St. Croix rivers, 41 miles (66 km) northwest of Halifax. The site was ...
Windsor
county, eastern Vermont, U.S., bounded to the east by New Hampshire (the Connecticut River constituting the border). It consists mostly of a piedmont region that rises to the Green Mountains ...
Windsor
city, seat of Essex county, southern Ontario, Canada. Windsor is situated on the left (south) bank of the Detroit River, opposite Detroit, Mich. Settled by French farmers shortly after 1701, ...
Windsor
town, Windsor and Maidenhead unitary authority, historic county of Berkshire, England. Windsor is situated on the south bank of the River Thames and lies to the west of London. The ...
Windsor and Maidenhead
royal borough and unitary authority, geographic county of Berkshire, southern England, located about 40 miles (64 km) west of central London. Most of the unitary authority lies in the historic ...
Windsor Castle
English royal residence that stands on a ridge at the northeastern edge of the district of Windsor and Maidenhead in the county of Berkshire, England. The castle occupies 13 acres ...
Windsor chair
popular type of wooden chair constructed of turned (shaped on a lathe), slender spindles that are socketed into a solid, saddle-shaped wooden seat. Those spindles extending downward form the legs ...
Windsor Locks
urban town (township), Hartford county, north-central Connecticut, U.S., on the Connecticut River. Originally settled as part of Windsor in 1663, it was known as Pine Meadow and Enfield Falls (for ...
Windsor, House of
the royal house of the United Kingdom, which succeeded the house of Hanover on the death of its last monarch, Queen Victoria, on Jan. 22, 1901. The dynasty has included ...
Windsor, Wallis Warfield, duchess of
American socialite who became the wife of Prince Edward, duke of Windsor (Edward VIII), after the latter had abdicated the British throne in order to marry her.
windsurfing
sport that combines aspects of sailing and surfing on a one-person craft called a sailboard.
Windthorst, Ludwig
prominent German Roman Catholic political leader of the 19th century. He was one of the founders of the Centre Party, which aimed at the unification of German Catholics and the ...
Windward Islands
a line of West Indian islands constituting the southern arc of the Lesser Antilles, at the eastern end of the Caribbean Sea, between latitudes 12° and 16° N and longitudes ...
Windward Islands
island group in the Atlantic Ocean off the West African coast, comprising one of two island groups of Cape Verde (q.v.) and consisting of the following islands: Boa Vista, Sal, ...
Windward Passage
strait in the West Indies, connecting the Atlantic Ocean with the Caribbean Sea. It is 50 miles (80 km) wide and separates Cuba (west) from Hispaniola (southeast). It has a ...
wine
the fermented juice of the grape. Of the grape genus Vitis, one species, V. vinifera (often erroneously called the European grape), is used almost exclusively. Beverages produced from V. labrusca, ...
Winfrey, Oprah
American television personality, actress, and entrepreneur whose syndicated daily talk show was among the most popular of the genre. She became one of the richest and most influential women in ...
wing
in zoology, one of the paired structures by means of which certain animals propel themselves in the air. Vertebrate wings are modifications of the forelimbs. In birds the fingers are ...
wing
in aeronautics, an airfoil that helps lift a heavier-than-air craft. When positioned above the fuselage (high wings), wings provide an unrestricted view below and good lateral stability. Parasol wings, placed ...