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waterskiing: planing over the surface of the water on broad skilike runners while being towed by a motorboat moving at least 24 km/hr (15 mph). The skier holds onto a handle ...
waterspout: a small-diameter column of rapidly swirling air in contact with a water surface. Waterspouts are almost always produced by a swiftly growing cumulus cloud. They may assume many shapes and ...
Waterton Lakes National Park: park in southwestern Alberta, Canada, on the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains, immediately north of the U.S. border and Glacier National Park in Montana. It has an area of ...
Watertown: city, Middlesex county, eastern Massachusetts, U.S., on the Charles River, just west of Boston. One of the four earliest Massachusetts Bay settlements, it was founded by a group led by ...
Watertown: city, seat (1805) of Jefferson county, northern New York, U.S. It lies at the falls (112 feet [34 metres]) of the Black River, 10 miles (16 km) east of Lake ...
Watertown: town (township), Litchfield county, west-central Connecticut, U.S., on the Naugatuck River immediately northwest of the city of Waterbury. The site was settled in 1701, and in 1738 the community was ...
Watertown: city, seat (1878) of Codington county, eastern South Dakota, U.S. It lies on the Big Sioux River, between Lakes Kampeska and Pelican, about 95 miles (155 km) north of Sioux ...
Waterville: city, Kennebec county, south-central Maine, U.S., on the Kennebec River 54 miles (87 km) southwest of Bangor and 21 miles (34 km) northeast of Augusta, the state capital. Settled around ...
Watervliet: city, Albany county, eastern New York, U.S., on the west bank of the Hudson River (bridged), opposite Troy. Originally part of a land tract bought by Kiliaen van Rensselaer, a ...
waterwheel: mechanical device for tapping the energy of running or falling water by means of a set of paddles mounted around a wheel. The force of the moving water is exerted ...
Watford: town and borough (district), administrative and historic county of Hertfordshire, England, situated on the northwest periphery of London and on the Rivers Colne and Gade and on the Grand Union ...
Watie, Stand: Cherokee chief who signed the treaty forcing tribal removal of the Cherokees from Georgia and who later served as brigadier general in the Confederate Army during the U.S. Civil War. ...
Watkins Glen: village, seat (1854) of Schuyler county, central New York, U.S. It lies at the south end of Seneca Lake, in the heart of the Finger Lakes region, 20 miles (32 ...
Watkins, Vernon Phillips: English-language Welsh poet who drew from Welsh material and legend.
Watling Street: Roman road in England that ran from Dover west-northwest to London and thence northwest via St. Albans (Verulamium) to Wroxeter (Ouirokonion, or Viroconium). It was one of Britain's greatest arterial ...
Watson Lake: community, southern Yukon Territory, Canada. It lies along a small lake on the border with British Columbia. It originated as a 19th-century trading post and was named after Frank Watson, ...
Watson, James Dewey: American geneticist and biophysicist who played a crucial role in the discovery of the molecular structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), the substance that is the basis of heredity. For this ...
Watson, John B.: American psychologist who codified and publicized behaviourism, an approach to psychology that, in his view, was restricted to the objective, experimental study of the relations between environmental events and human ...
Watson, John Christian: politician and the first Labour prime minister of Australia (1904).
Watson, Sir William: English author of lyrical and political verse, with a special gift for occasional poems.
Watson, Thomas Augustus: American telephone pioneer and shipbuilder, one of the original organizers of the Bell Telephone Company, who later turned to shipbuilding and constructed a number of vessels for the United States ...
Watson, Thomas J., Sr.: American industrialist who built the International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) into the largest manufacturer of electric typewriters and data-processing equipment in the world.
Watson, William: English Roman Catholic priest who was executed for his part in the "Bye Plot" against King James I.
Watson-Watt, Sir Robert Alexander: Scottish physicist credited with the development of radar in England.
Watsuji Tetsuro: Japanese moral philosopher and historian of ideas, outstanding among modern Japanese thinkers who have tried to combine the Eastern moral spirit with Western ethical ideas.
watt: unit of power in the International System of Units (SI) equal to one joule of work performed per second, or to 1746 horsepower. An equivalent is the power dissipated in ...
Watt, James: Scottish instrument maker and inventor whose steam engine contributed substantially to the Industrial Revolution. He was elected fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1785.
watt-hour meter: device that measures and records over time the electric power flowing through a circuit. Although there are several different types of watt-hour meters, each consists essentially of a small electric ...
Watteau, Antoine: French painter who typified the lyrically charming and graceful style of the Rococo. Much of his work reflects the influence of the commedia dell'arte and the opera ballet (e.g., "The ...
wattle and daub: in building construction, method of constructing walls in which vertical wooden stakes, or wattles, are woven with horizontal twigs and branches, and then daubed with clay or mud. This method ...
wattle-eye: any of a number of small, stubby African songbirds of the subfamily Platysteirinae, family Muscicapidae (q.v.); some authorities retain them in the flycatcher subfamily, Muscicapinae. Most species have bright, fleshy ...
wattlebird: any of several New Zealand birds of the family Callaeidae (q.v.); also, a particular name for any honeyeater (q.v.) of the genus Anthochaera.
Wattrelos: town, Nord departement, Nord-Pas-de-Calais region, northern France, on the Belgian-French border. A northeastern suburb of Roubaix, it has textile, chemical, and metallurgical industries. The community was known as Waterloz in ...
Watts: southwestern district of Los Angeles, California, U.S. The district, originally called Mud Town, was renamed in 1900 for C.H. Watts, a Pasadena realtor who owned a ranch there. It was ...
Watts, George Frederick: English painter and sculptor of grandiose allegorical themes. Watts believed that art should preach a universal message, but his subject matter, conceived in terms of vague abstract ideals, is full ...
Watts, Isaac: English Nonconformist minister, regarded as the father of English hymnody.
Watts-Dunton, Theodore: English critic and man of letters, who was the friend and self-appointed protector of the poet Algernon Charles Swinburne.
Wau: town, eastern Papua New Guinea, at the junction of Edie Creek and Bulolo River, in a mountainous region accessible by road from Lae and by air from Port Moresby. Gold ...
Wauchope: town, north coastal New South Wales, Australia, 12 mi (19 km) above the mouth of the Hastings River, just west of Port Macquarie. Named after a Captain Wauch, an early ...
Waucoban Series: lowermost Cambrian rocks (the Cambrian Period lasted from 540 to 505 million years ago); the name is derived from exposures found at Waucoba Springs, Calif. The period of time corresponding ...
Waugh, Alec: English popular novelist and travel writer, older brother of the writer Evelyn Waugh.
Waugh, Evelyn: English writer regarded by many as the most brilliant satirical novelist of his day.
Waukegan: city, seat (1841) of Lake county, northeastern Illinois, U.S. It lies on a high bluff above Lake Michigan, about 40 miles (65 km) north of Chicago. One of the oldest ...
Waukesha: city, seat (1846) of Waukesha county, southeastern Wisconsin, U.S. It is situated on the Fox River, about 15 miles (25 km) west of Milwaukee. The site was settled by Morris ...
Wausau: city, seat (1850) of Marathon county, north-central Wisconsin, U.S. It lies on the Wisconsin River, about 90 miles (150 km) northwest of Green Bay. Settled in 1839 as a sawmill ...
Wauwatosa: city, western suburb of Milwaukee, Milwaukee county, southeastern Wisconsin, U.S. It lies on the Menomonee River, just north of West Allis. Potawatomi and Menominee Indians were among the early inhabitants ...
wave: on a body of water, a ridge or swell on the surface, normally having a forward motion distinct from the oscillatory motion of the particles that successively compose it. The ...
wave front: imaginary surface representing corresponding points of a wave that vibrate in unison. When identical waves having a common origin travel through a homogeneous medium, the corresponding crests and troughs at ...
wave function: in quantum mechanics, variable quantity that mathematically describes the wave characteristics of a particle. The value of the wave function of a particle at a given point of space and ...
wave mechanics: quantum mechanics, especially that version originally developed (1926) by the Austrian physicist Erwin Schrodinger. See Schrodinger equation.
wave motion: propagation of disturbances-that is, deviations from a state of rest or equilibrium-from place to place in a regular and organized way. Most familiar are surface waves on water, but both ...
wave number: a unit of frequency in atomic, molecular, and nuclear spectroscopy equal to the true frequency divided by the speed of light and thus equal to the number of waves in ...
wave velocity: distance traversed by a periodic, or cyclic, motion per unit time (in any direction). Wave velocity in common usage refers to speed, although, properly, velocity implies both speed and direction. ...
wave-cut platform: gently sloping rock ledge that extends from the high-tide level at the steep-cliff base to below the low-tide level. It develops as a result of wave abrasion; beaches protect the ...
wave-particle duality: possession by physical entities (such as light and electrons) of both wavelike and particle-like characteristics. On the basis of experimental evidence, the German physicist Albert Einstein first showed (1905) that ...
waveguide: any of a class of devices that confines and directs the propagation of electromagnetic waves, such as radio waves, infrared rays, and visible light. Waveguides take many shapes and forms. ...
wavelength: distance between corresponding points of two consecutive waves. "Corresponding points" refers to two points or particles in the same phase-i.e., points that have completed identical fractions of their periodic motion. ...
Wavell, Archibald Percival Wavell, 1st Earl, Viscount Wavell Of Cyrenaica And Of Winchester, Viscount Keren Of Eritrea And Of Winchester: British field marshal whose victories against the Italians in North Africa during the early part of World War II were offset by his inability to defeat the German Afrika Korps ...
wavellite: hydrated aluminum phosphate [Al₃(PO₄)₂(OH)₃·5H₂O], a common phosphate mineral that typically occurs as translucent, greenish, globular masses in crevices in aluminous metamorphic rocks, in limonite and phosphate-rock deposits, and in hydrothermal ...
wavemeter: device for determining the distance between successive wavefronts of equal phase along an electromagnetic wave. The determination is often made indirectly, by measuring the frequency of the wave. Although electromagnetic ...
Waveney: district, administrative and historic county of Suffolk, England. It is bounded on the east by the North Sea and on the northwest by the River Waveney. The interior is rich ...
Waveney, River: stream in England whose whole course of 50 miles (80 km) marks the boundary between the East Anglian counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. The river flows northeastward through agricultural countryside, ...
Waverley: borough (district), administrative and historic county of Surrey, England. It occupies the southwestern corner of the county, along the Hampshire and Sussex borders. Its wooded hills and heathlands have been ...
WAVES: military unit, established on July 30, 1942, as the U.S. Navy's corps of female members. During World War II some 100,000 WAVES served in a wide variety of capacities, ranging ...
Wavre: capital of Walloon Brabant province, central Belgium. It lies along the Dijle (Dyle) River about 14 miles (22 km) southeast of Brussels. The town began as a trading centre at ...
wax: any of a class of pliable substances of animal, plant, mineral, or synthetic origin that differ from fats in being less greasy, harder, and more brittle and in containing principally ...
wax gourd: trailing fleshy vine, of the gourd family (Cucurbitaceae), native to tropical Asia but grown in many warm countries for its edible fruits. A wax gourd has solitary yellow flowers 8 ...
wax sculpture: the preparation of finished figures in beeswax by modelling or molding or the use of such figures as a form for casting metal or creating preliminary models. At ordinary temperatures ...
waxbill: any of several Old World tropical birds named for the prominent red (the colour of sealing wax) of their conical bills. The name is used generally for birds of the ...
Waxman, Meyer: Jewish literary historian, rabbi, educator, and scholar.
waxplant: any of a number of unrelated plants that are waxy in some respect. Most popular as greenhouse plants or window plants are several species of Hoya, called wax plants, or ...
waxwing: any of three species of birds belonging to the songbird family Bombycillidae (order Passeriformes). They are elegant-looking birds named for beads of shiny red material on the tips of the ...
wayang: (Javanese: "shadow"), classical Javanese puppet drama that uses the shadows thrown by puppets manipulated by rods against a translucent screen lit from behind. Developed before the 10th century, the form ...
Waycross: city, seat (1872) of Ware county, southeastern Georgia, U.S., on the coastal plain, about 50 miles (80 km) west of Brunswick. Early settlers had built blockhouses in the area by ...
Wayland The Smith: in Scandinavian, German, and Anglo-Saxon legend, a smith of outstanding skill. He was, according to some legends, a lord of the elves. His story is told in the Volundarkvida, one ...
Wayne: township (town), Passaic county, northern New Jersey, U.S., 6 miles (10 km) west of Paterson, New Jersey. The site, first settled in 1695, was originally part of New Barbadoes township ...