politician who served as prime minister of Bangladesh from 1991 to 1996 and from 2001. The first woman to serve as prime minister of Bangladesh, she governed during a period ...
any of an important class of mixtures of chemical compounds remarkable for their ability to effect the polymerization of olefins (hydrocarbons containing a double carbon-carbon bond) to polymers of high ...
city, one of two capitals (with Gorzow Wielkopolski) of Lubuskie wojewodztwo (province), west-central Poland. It is an important industrial (textile and metal production) and cultural centre, having ...
pyramidal, stepped temple tower that is an architectural and religious structure characteristic of the major cities of Mesopotamia (now in Iraq) from approximately 2200 until 500 BC. The ziggurat was ...
river-port town, southwestern Senegal, lying along the Casamance River. Ziguinchor has long been known and visited by European mariners. In 1457 the Venetian navigator Alvise Ca' da Mosto (Cadamosto), envoy ...
town, north-central Slovakia. It lies along the Vah River at its confluence with the Kysuca and Rajcianka rivers. Originally an early 13th-century Slavic trading settlement, Zilina became a free royal ...
landlocked country of southern Africa. It shares a 125-mile (200-kilometre) border on the south with the Republic of South Africa and is bounded on the southwest and west by Botswana, ...
German foreign secretary during part of World War I (1916-17), the author of a sensational proposal to Mexico to enter into an alliance against the United States.
Bavarian Baroque architect and stuccoist whose church at Wies (now in Baden-Wurttemberg) is considered one of the finest accomplishments of Baroque architecture.
chemical element, low-melting metal of Group IIb (zinc group) of the periodic table, essential to life, and one of the most widely used metals. Zinc was known in Roman times ...
any of the three metals that comprise Group IIb of the periodic table of elements-namely, zinc (Zn), cadmium (Cd), and mercury (Hg). (See .) They have properties in common, but ...
archaeological site in the foothills of the Anti-Taurus Mountains, south-central Turkey. Samal was one of the Late Hittite city-states that perpetuated the more or less Semitized southern Anatolian culture for ...
mineral consisting of zinc oxide (ZnO), usually found in platy or granular masses. Its blood-red colour and orange-yellow streak are characteristic, as is also its common association with black franklinite ...
American playwright and novelist whose largely autobiographical work features poignant, alienated characters who deal with life's difficulties in pragmatic and straightforward ways.
city, south-central Niger. The country's second largest city, it was the capital of a Muslim dynasty established in the 18th century, which freed itself from the sovereignty of Bornu in ...
American biologist who discovered the occurrence of genetic transduction-the carrying of hereditary material from one strain of microorganisms to another by a filterable agent such as a bacteriophage, or bacterial ...
largest family of the order Zingiberales, containing about 53 genera and more than 1,200 species. These aromatic herbs grow chiefly in moist, swampy areas of the tropics and subtropics.
subclass of monocotyledonous flowering plants. Its members are herbaceous and may be either terrestrial or epiphytic (i.e., supported by other plants and having aerial roots exposed to the humid atmosphere).
Swiss immunologist and pathologist who, along with Peter C. Doherty of Australia, received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1996 for their discovery of how the immune system ...
any of about 22 species of herbs and shrubs constituting the genus Zinnia of the family Compositae (Asteraceae), and native primarily to North America. They are perennial where they are ...
revolutionary who worked closely with Lenin in the Bolshevik Party before the Russian Revolution of 1917 and became a central figure in the Communist Party leadership in the Soviet Union ...
nationalist politician and president (1968-69) of Dahomey, noted for the success of his attempts to solve his country's overwhelming economic and financial problems.
religious and social reformer of the German Pietist movement who, as leader of the Moravian church (Unitas Fratrum), sought to create an ecumenical Protestant movement.
in the Old Testament, the easternmost of the two hills of ancient Jerusalem. It was the site of the Jebusite city captured by David, king of Israel and Judah, in ...
city, Lake county, northeastern Illinois, U.S. It lies along Lake Michigan, near the Wisconsin border. The area was originally inhabited by Potawatomi Indians. Zion was founded in 1900 by John ...
dramatic landscape of colourful deep canyons, high cliffs, mesas, and forested plateaus in southwestern Utah, U.S. The park lies on the northwestern edge of the Colorado Plateau about 30 miles ...
Jewish nationalist movement that has had as its goal the creation and support of a Jewish national state in Palestine, the ancient homeland of the Jews (Hebrew: Eretz Yisra'el, "the ...
any of several prophet-healing groups in southern Africa; they correspond to the independent churches known as Aladura (q.v.) in Nigeria, "spiritual" in Ghana, and "prophet-healing churches" in most other parts ...
system of zone coding introduced by the U.S. Post Office Department (now the U.S. Postal Service) in 1963 to facilitate the sorting and delivery of mail. After an extensive publicity ...
device for binding the edges of an opening such as on a garment or a bag. A zipper consists of two strips of material with metal or plastic teeth along ...
silicate mineral, zirconium silicate, ZrSiO4, the principal source of zirconium. Zircon is widespread as an accessory mineral in acid igneous rocks; it also occurs in metamorphic rocks and, fairly often, ...
Muslim dynasty of Sanhajah Berbers whose various branches ruled in Ifriqiyah (Tunisia and eastern Algeria) and Granada (972-1152). Rising to prominence in the mountains of Kabylie, Algeria, where they established ...
German geologist and pioneer in microscopic petrography, the study of rock minerals by viewing thin slices of rock under a microscope and noting their optical characteristics.
any of several stringed musical instruments. The European zither consists of a flat, shallow sound box across which some 30 or 40 gut or metal strings are stretched. The strings ...
city, Saxony Land (state), eastern Germany. It lies on the Lausitzer Neisse River, near the frontiers of Poland and the Czech Republic, southeast of Dresden. Originating as ...
(Arabic: "visit"), in Islam, a visit to the tomb of the Prophet Muhammad in the mosque at Medina, Saudi Arabia; also a visit to the tomb of a saint or ...
(Hrabe) military commander and national hero of Bohemia who led the victorious Hussite Protestant armies against the German king Sigismund, foreshadowing the revolution of military tactics two centuries later in ...
city, Chelyabinsk oblast (province), western Russia. It lies on both banks of the Ay River and on the Ufa-Chelyabinsk trunk railway, where river and rail cut through the Urenga Range ...
city, Jihomoravsky kraj (region), Czech Republic, on the Drevnice River, near its confluence with the Morava River. Gottwaldov was created in 1948 through a merger of several communities surrounding Zlin, ...
monetary unit of Poland. Each zloty (spelled zloty in Polish) is divided into 100 groszy. The National Bank of Poland has the exclusive right to issue currency ...
city in western Turkey. The country's third largest city and one of its largest ports, it lies at the head of the sheltered Gulf of Izmir on the deeply indented ...
city, northwestern Turkey. It lies near the head of Izmit Gulf of the Sea of Marmara. The city spreads across several hills and over a narrow plain that contains its ...
Polish-American sociologist whose theoretical and methodological work helped make sociology a distinct academic discipline. He was a pioneer in the field of empirical investigation and was noted as an authority ...
town, northwestern Turkey. It lies on the eastern shore of Lake Iznik. Founded in the 4th century BC by the Macedonian king Antigonus I Monophthalmus, it was an important centre ...
city, Jihomoravsky kraj (region), Czech Republic, on the Dyje River, southwest of Brno, near the Austrian border. It originated in the 11th century as a fortified residence and was the ...
any member of the order Zoanthidea, a group of about 300 species of marine animals of the class Anthozoa (phylum Cnidaria) characterized by a polyp (i.e., a cylindrical stalklike structure ...
in astronomy and astrology, a belt around the heavens extending 9° on either side of the ecliptic, the plane of the earth's orbit and of the sun's apparent annual path. ...
band of light in the night sky, thought to be sunlight reflected from meteoroids concentrated in the plane of the zodiac, or ecliptic. The light is seen in the west ...
in Eastern Orthodoxy, a semimonastic Greek association patterned on Western religious orders. Founded in 1907 by Eusebius Matthopoulos, Zoe (Greek: "Life") brought together groups of more than 100 unmarried and ...
gemeente (commune), Zuid-Holland provincie, western Netherlands. Zoetermeer is located about 10 miles (16 km) north of Rotterdam and is situated on a polder created during the 17th century. Industries in ...
German-born portrait painter who in late 18th-century England made his reputation with paintings depicting episodes from contemporary theatre and with portraits and conversation pieces (i.e., paintings of groups of people ...
president of Albania from 1925 to 1928 and king from 1928 to 1939. Though able to manipulate Albania's internal affairs to his own advantage, he came to depend heavily on ...
silicate mineral, calcium and aluminum silicate, Ca2Al3(SiO4)3OH, characteristic of regional metamorphism and of hydrothermal alteration of igneous rocks. A member of the epidote (q.v.) group of nesosilicates, zoisite occurs as ...
pass across the Himalayas in the Indian-held part of Jammu and Kashmir state, in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent. Situated at an elevation of 11,580 feet (3,529 m), ...
any of seven north Asian species of subterranean rodents. Zokors are molelike animals that have chunky cylindrical bodies with short powerful limbs. Their feet are large and robust, and the ...
French novelist, critic, and political activist who was the most prominent French novelist of the late 19th century. He was noted for his theories of naturalism, which underlie his monumental ...
