Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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Allegheny College ... Alligator Rivers

Allegheny College: private, coeducational institution of higher learning in Meadville, Pennsylvania, U.S. The college offers bachelor's degrees in the liberal arts and sciences. It also sponsors study-abroad programs in various countries. The college, though affiliated with the United Methodist Church, is nonsectarian. ...
Allegheny Mountains: mountainous eastern part of the Allegheny Plateau in the Appalachian Mountains, U.S. The Allegheny range extends south-southwestward for more than 500 miles (800 km) from north-central Pennsylvania to southwestern Virginia. Rising to Mount Davis (3,213 feet [979 m]; highest point ...
Allegheny Plateau: western section of the Appalachian Mountains, U.S., extending southwestward from the Mohawk River valley in central New York to the Cumberland Plateau in southern West Virginia. Generally sloping toward the northwest, the plateau has been dissected by streams to form ...
Allegheny River: river rising in the hilly plateau region of Potter county, Pennsylvania, U.S., and flowing generally northward for about 80 miles (130 km). The river enters New York state where the Allegheny Reservoir is impounded at Allegany State Park; turning southwest, ...
allegory: a symbolic fictional narrative that conveys a secondary meaning not explicitly set forth in the literal narrative. Allegory encompasses such forms as fable, parable, and apologue and may involve either a literary or an interpretive process.
Allegret, Marc: French motion-picture director known for his exacting film technique.
Allegret, Yves: French motion-picture director who gained fame for his work in the "film noir" genre that was popular in the late 1940s.
allele: any one of two or more genes that may occur alternatively at a given site (locus) on a chromosome. Alleles may occur in pairs, or there may be multiple alleles affecting the expression (phenotype) of a particular trait. If the ...
allemande: processional couple dance with stately, flowing steps, fashionable in 16th-century aristocratic circles; also an 18th-century figure dance. The earlier dance apparently originated in Germany but became fashionable both at the French court (whence its name, which in French means "German") ...
allemontite: the mineral arsenic antimonide (AsSb). It commonly occurs in veins, as at Allemont, Isere, Fr.; Valtellina, Italy; and the Comstock Lode, Nevada. It also is present in a lithium pegmatite at Varutrask, Swed. Polished sections of most specimens of allemontite ...
Allen, Bog of: group of peat bogs between the Liffey and the Shannon rivers in east-central Ireland in Counties Kildare, Offaly, Laoighis, and Westmeath. Some 370 square miles (958 square km) in area, it is developed extensively for fuel for power stations; the ...
Allen, Elizabeth Anne Chase Akers: American journalist and poet, remembered chiefly for her sentimental poem "Rock Me to Sleep," which found especial popularity during the Civil War.
Allen, Ethan: soldier and frontiersman, leader of the Green Mountain Boys during the American Revolution.
Allen, Florence Ellinwood: American jurist who became the first woman to serve on the bench in a number of state courts and one federal jurisdiction.
Allen, Fred: American humorist whose laconic style, dry wit, and superb timing influenced a generation of radio and television performers.
Allen, Henry: African-American jazz musician, one of the major trumpeters of the swing era, he also sang and led small bands.
Allen, Hervey: American poet, biographer, and novelist who had a great impact on popular literature with his historical novel Anthony Adverse.
Allen, Paula Gunn: American poet, novelist, and scholar whose work combines the influences of feminism and her Native American heritage.
Allen, Phog: American college basketball coach who is regarded as the first great basketball coach. He was also instrumental in making basketball an Olympic sport.
Allen, Richard: founder and first bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, a major American denomination.
Allen, Sir Hugh: organist and musical educator who exerted a far-reaching influence on the English musical life of his time.
Allen, Sir James: statesman, leader of the New Zealand Reform Party, and minister of defense (1912-20) who was instrumental in the development of New Zealand's navy and expeditionary military force.
Allen, Steve: pioneer American television entertainer, versatile author, songwriter, and comedian who performed in radio, motion pictures, and theatre as well as television.
Allen, Viola: American actress, especially famous for her Shakespearean roles and for her roles in Frances Eliza Burnett's Little Lord Fauntleroy and Bronson Howard's Shenandoah, both extremely popular plays.
Allen, Walter: British novelist and critic best known for the breadth and accessibility of his criticism.
Allen, William: English cardinal and scholar who supervised the preparation of the Roman Catholic Douai-Reims translation of the Bible and engaged in intrigues against the Protestant regime of Queen Elizabeth I.
Allen, Woody: American motion-picture director, screenwriter, actor, and author, best known for his bittersweet comic films containing elements of parody, slapstick, and the absurd. He was also known as a sympathetic director for women, writing strong and well-defined characters for them. Among ...
Allenby, Edmund Henry Hynman Allenby, 1st Viscount: field marshal, the last great British leader of mounted cavalry, who directed the Palestine campaign in World War I.
Allendale: county, southern South Carolina, U.S. It is a rural area on the Coastal Plain. The Savannah River border with Georgia defines the western boundary, the Salkehatchie River the northeastern. It is also drained by the Coosawhatchie River. Much of the ...
Allende, Isabel: Chilean writer in the magic realist tradition who is considered one of the first successful woman novelists in Latin America.
Allende, Salvador: Chile's first socialist president.
Allentown: city, seat (1812) of Lehigh county, eastern Pennsylvania, U.S. Situated on the Lehigh River, Allentown, with Bethlehem and Easton, forms an industrial complex. William Allen, mayor of Philadelphia and later chief justice of Pennsylvania, laid out the town (1762), naming ...
Alleppey: city, southern Kerala state, southwestern India. It lies on a narrow land spit between the Arabian Sea and Vembanad Lake, south of Kochi (formerly Cochin). Alleppey's port was opened to foreign trade by the British in the late 18th century ...
Allerdale: district, administrative county of Cumbria, historic county of Cumberland, northwestern England, in the northwestern part of the county along the coast of the Solway Firth. Except for its coastal plain on the west and northwest, Allerdale is a scenic district ...
allergen: substance that in some persons induces the hypersensitive state of allergy and stimulates the formation of reaginic antibodies. Allergens may be naturally occurring or of synthetic origin and include pollen, mold spores, dust, animal dander, insect debris, foods, blood serum, ...
allergy: hypersensitivity reaction by the body to foreign substances (antigens) that in similar amounts and circumstances are harmless within the bodies of other people.
Alleyn, Edward: one of the greatest actors of the Elizabethan stage and founder of Dulwich College, London. Rivaled only by Richard Burbage, Alleyn won the outspoken admiration of such authors as Ben Jonson and Thomas Nashe for his interpretations of Christopher Marlowe's ...
Allgemeine Enzyklopadie der Wissenschaften und Kunste: (German: "Universal Encyclopaedia of Sciences and Arts"), monumental uncompleted German encyclopaedia of which 167 volumes were published from 1818 to 1889. Founded by a German bibliographer, Johann Samuel Ersch, who began work on it in 1813, the Allgemeine Enzyklopadie der ...
Allgemeine Zeitung: (German: "General Newspaper"), greatest German newspaper in the 19th century, founded at Tubingen in 1798 by Johann Friedrich Cotta, later Freiherr (baron) von Cottendorf. Censorship and other pressures forced it to move successively to Stuttgart, Ulm, Augsburg, and Munich. The ...
Allgood, Sara: Irish character actress who performed in the original Sean O'Casey plays produced at Dublin's Abbey Theatre and in many American motion pictures of the 1940s. Her early instructors included Frank and W.G. Fay, W.B. Yeats, and John Millington Synge.
Alliaceae: family of flowering plants in the order Liliales, with about 30 genera and more than 670 species, distributed throughout most regions of the world, except for the tropics, Australia, and New Zealand. Members of the family have corms, bulbs, or ...
alliance: in international relations, a formal agreement between two or more states for mutual support in case of war. Contemporary alliances provide for combined action on the part of two or more independent states and are generally defensive in nature, obligating ...
Alliance: city, Stark county, northeastern Ohio, U.S., on the Mahoning River, 21 mi (34 km) northeast of Canton. In 1854 the villages of Williamsport, Freedom, and Liberty were incorporated as the village of Alliance, so named for the junction and crossing ...
Alliance for Progress: former international economic development program established by the United States and 22 Latin American countries in the Charter of Punta del Este (Uruguay) in August 1961. Objectives stated in the charter centred on the maintenance of democratic government and the ...
Alliance Party of Northern Ireland: Northern Ireland's oldest interdenominational party, a small, moderate party that represents middle-class interests primarily in the eastern areas of the province.
Allied Powers: those nations allied in opposition to the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey) in World War I or to the Axis Powers (Germany, Italy, and Japan) in World War II.
Allied-Signal Inc.: American corporation, a leading manufacturer of aerospace systems and components. Headquarters are in Morristown, N.J.
Allier River: river, central France, that joins the Loire River 4 miles (6 km) west of Nevers after a course of 255 miles (410 km). Rising in Lozere departement, it races through deep gorges along structural lines of weakness between the Margeride ...
alligator: either of two long-snouted crocodilian reptiles usually placed with the South American caimans in the family Alligatoridae. Alligators, like other crocodilians, are large lizardlike animals with powerful tails that are used both in defense and in swimming. Their eyes, ears, ...
alligator apple: fruit tree of tropical America valued for its wood. See custard apple.
Alligator Rivers: three perennial rivers, northeastern Northern Territory, Australia, that empty into Van Diemen Gulf, an inlet of the Timor Sea. They were explored in 1818-20 by Captain Phillip Parker King, who named them in the belief that the crocodiles infesting their ...