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Dhu al-faqar ... Dianthus
Dhu al-faqar
in Islamic mythology, the two-pointed magical sword that has come to represent 'Ali, fourth caliph and son-in-law of Muhammad. Originally owned by an unbeliever, al-'As ibn Munabbih, Dhu al-faqar came into Muhammad's possession as booty from the Battle of Badr ...
Dhu an-Nunid Dynasty
11th-century Muslim Berber dynasty of Toledo that ruled central Spain from Guadalajara and Talavera to Murcia during the unruly period of the party kingdoms (ta'ifahs). As early as the mid-8th century the Banu Zannun-their name was later Arabicized-had settled northeast ...
Dhuburi
town, western Assam state, northeastern India. Situated on the Brahmaputra River just east of the Bangladesh border, it is a trade centre for rice, jute, fish, and other products. A match factory is the major industry. The town has road ...
Dhulia
town, northwestern Maharashtra state, western India, on major road and rail routes. In early Muslim times it belonged to the Faruquis, but later, in 1601, it became part of the Mughal Empire. Later conquered by Marathas in the 18th century ...
dhyana
in Indian philosophy, a stage in the process of meditation leading to Nirvana. See Buddhist meditation.
Dhyani-Buddha
in Mahayana and Vajrayana (Tantric) Buddhism, any of a group of five "self-born" Buddhas who have always existed from the beginning of time; the five are usually identified as Vairocana, Aksobhya, Ratnasambhava, Amitabha, and Amoghasiddhi.
Di Centa, Manuela
Italian Nordic skier who was the only athlete to win five Olympic medals in cross-country skiing at a single Winter Games (1994). A dominant force on the international level, she also won 15 World Cup events and 2 overall titles ...
Di Prima, Diane
American poet, one of the few women of the Beat movement to attain prominence.
Di Stefano, Alfredo
football (soccer) player and manager, regarded as one of the greatest centre forwards in football history. His reputation is based largely on his performance for the Spanish club Real Madrid (1953-64), for which he was an intelligent player with exceptional ...
diabase
fine- to medium-grained, dark gray to black intrusive igneous rock. It is extremely hard and tough and is commonly quarried for crushed stone, under the name of trap. Although not popular, it makes an excellent monumental stone and is one ...
Diabelli, Anton
Austrian music publisher and composer best known for his waltz, or landler, on which Ludwig van Beethoven wrote his 33 variations for piano (Diabelli Variations, Opus 120).
diabetes insipidus
pathological endocrine condition characterized by extreme thirst and excessive production of very dilute urine. The essential feature of the disorder appears to be a lack of antidiuretic hormone (vasopressin) or a blocking of its action. This hormone, produced by the ...
diabetes mellitus
a disorder of carbohydrate metabolism characterized by the impaired ability of the body to produce or respond to insulin and thereby maintain proper levels of sugar (glucose) in the blood.
diablerie
a representation in words or pictures of black magic or of dealings with the devil. Among the literary works that contain such representations are Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" and Sylvia Townsend Warner's Lolly Willowes. The word is French and ...
Diablo Range
segment of the Pacific Coast Ranges (see Pacific mountain system) in west-central California, U.S. It extends southeastward for about 180 miles (290 km) from the solitary 3,849-foot (1,173-metre) Mount Diablo within Mount Diablo State Park (Contra Costa county), about 20 ...
diaconate
the office of a deacon (q.v.), or a body or board of deacons.
Diadectes
extinct genus of amphibians found as fossils in Lower Permian rocks in North America, dating from the Early Permian Period (286 to 258 million years ago). Diadectes had both reptilelike characteristics and primitive amphibian-like traits and is classified in the ...
Diadochus Of Photice
theologian, mystic, and bishop of Photice, Epirus, who was a staunch defender of orthodox Christological doctrine. His treatises on the ascetic life have influenced Eastern Orthodox and Western spirituality.
diaeresis
(from Greek diairein, "to divide"), the resolution of one syllable into two, especially by separating the vowel elements of a diphthong and, by extension, two adjacent vowels, as in the word cooperation; it is also the mark placed over a ...
diagenesis
sum of all processes, chiefly chemical, by which changes in a sediment are brought about after its deposition but before its final lithification (conversion to rock). Because most sediments contain mineral mixtures in which not all the minerals are in ...
Diaghilev, Sergey Pavlovich
Russian promoter of the arts who revitalized ballet by integrating the ideals of other art forms-music, painting, and drama-with those of the dance. From 1906 he lived in Paris, where, in 1909, he founded the Ballets Russes. Thereafter he toured ...
diagnosis
the process of determining the nature of a disease or disorder and distinguishing it from other possible conditions. The term comes from the Greek gnosis, meaning knowledge.
diagnostic imaging
the use of electromagnetic radiation to produce images of internal structures of the human body for the purpose of accurate diagnosis. Diagnostic imaging is roughly equivalent to radiology (q.v.), the branch of medicine that uses radiation to diagnose and treat ...
Diaguita
Indian peoples of South America, formerly inhabiting northwestern Argentina and the Chilean provinces of Atacama and Coquimbo. The Calchaqui, a northwestern Argentine subgroup of the Diaguita, are the best-documented. Their language affiliation remains uncertain.
dialect
a variety of a language. The word comes from the Ancient Greek dialektos "discourse, language, dialect," which is derived from dialegesthai "to discourse, talk." A dialect may be distinguished from other dialects of the ...
dialectic
originally a form of logical argumentation but now a philosophical concept of evolution applied to diverse fields including thought, nature, and history.
dialectical materialism
a philosophical approach to reality derived from the teachings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. For Marx and Engels, materialism meant that the material world, perceptible to the senses, has objective reality independent of mind or spirit. They did not ...
dialectology
the study of dialects. Variation most commonly occurs as a result of relative geographic or social isolation and may affect vocabulary or features of grammar or pronunciation or both. Dialectology as a discipline began in the 19th century with the ...
diallage
either of the two pyroxenes augite and diopside, which have well-developed, close-spaced, parallel partings commonly filled with magnetite or ilmenite. These filled partings are generally more pronounced than cleavage planes. Diallage is commonly dark green or bronze-coloured and often occurs ...
dialogue
in its widest sense, the recorded conversation of two or more persons, especially as an element of drama or fiction. As a literary form, it is a carefully organized exposition, by means of invented conversation, of contrasting philosophical or intellectual ...
dialysis
in medicine, the process of removing blood from a patient whose kidney functioning is faulty, purifying that blood by dialysis, and returning it to the patient's bloodstream. The artificial kidney, or hemodialyzer, is a machine that provides a means for ...
dialysis
in chemistry, separation of suspended colloidal particles from dissolved ions or molecules of small dimensions (crystalloids) by means of their unequal rates of diffusion through the pores of semipermeable membranes. This process was first employed in 1861 by a British ...
diamagnetism
kind of magnetism characteristic of materials that line up at right angles to a nonuniform magnetic field and that partly expel from their interior the magnetic field in which they are placed. First observed by S.J. Brugmans (1778) in bismuth ...
Diamantina
city, central Minas Gerais estado (state), southeastern Brazil. It lies in the mineral-laden Espinhaco Mountains at 4,140 feet (1,262 metres) above sea level. Formerly called Tejuco, the city has some colonial buildings and a diamond museum. Textile ...
Diamantina River
intermittent river, east-central Australia, in the pastoral Channel Country (q.v.). It rises in Kirbys Nob, east of Selwyn, Queen., and flows (seasonally) for 500 miles (800 km) southwest past Birdsville to Goyder Lagoon in South Australia, draining a basin of ...
diamond
a mineral composed of pure carbon. It is the hardest naturally occurring substance known; it is also the most popular gemstone. Because of their extreme hardness, diamonds have a number of important industrial applications.
diamond cutting
separate and special branch of lapidary art involving five basic steps in fashioning a diamond: marking, cleaving, sawing, girdling, and faceting.
Diamond Harbour
city, southeastern West Bengal state, northeastern India, on both sides of Hajipur Creek, a tributary of the Hooghly River. It is an agricultural trade centre; rice milling is the chief industry. An important steamer stop, it contains the customhouse and ...
Diamond Head
cape and celebrated landmark, Honolulu county, southeastern Oahu island, Hawaii, U.S. It lies at the southern edge of Waikiki. An extinct volcanic crater and tuff cone, Diamond Head was the site of a luakini heiau, an ancient ...
Diamond Sutra
("Diamond Cutter Sutra"), brief and very popular Mahayana Buddhist text, widely used in East Asia, and perhaps the best known of the 18 smaller "Wisdom" texts, which together with their commentaries are known as the Prajnaparamita. It takes the form ...
Diamond, Cape
promontory in Quebec region, southern Quebec province, Canada. It is part of the city of Quebec and is located west of the confluence of the St. Charles and St. Lawrence rivers. It is the highest point in the headland (333 ...
Diamond, I.A.L.
Romanian-born American screenwriter who worked with director Billy Wilder to produce such motion pictures as Love in the Afternoon (1957), Some Like It Hot (1959), and The Apartment (1960), for which he won an Academy Award for best screenplay.
diamondback moth
(Plutella maculipennis), species of insect belonging to the family Plutellidae (order Lepidoptera). They resemble ermine moths, but diamondbacks hold their antennae forward when at rest. The adult moths have a wingspan of 15 mm (0.6 inch) and wavy yellow radial ...
diamondbird
any of several songbirds of the family Dicaeidae (order Passeriformes) with a simple tongue and a thickish, unserrated bill. Most of the seven or eight species, of the genus Pardalotus, which are confined to Australia, have gemlike white spangles on ...
Diamper, Synod of
council that formally united the ancient Christian Church of the Malabar Coast (modern Kerala), India, with the Roman Catholic church; it was convoked in 1599 by Aleixo de Meneses, archbishop of Goa. The synod renounced Nestorianism, the heresy that believed ...
Diana
in Roman religion, goddess of wild animals and the hunt, virtually indistinguishable from the Greek goddess Artemis. Her name is akin to the Latin words dium ("sky") and dius ("daylight"). Like her Greek counterpart, she was also a goddess of ...
diana monkey
arboreal species of guenon named for its crescent-shaped white browband that resembles the bow of the goddess Diana. The diana monkey is generally found well above the ground in West African rainforests. Its face and much of its fur are ...
Diana, princess of Wales
former consort (1981-96) of Charles, prince of Wales, and mother of the heir second in line to the British throne, Prince William of Wales (born 1982).
Diane De France, Duchesse De Montmorency Et Angouleme
natural daughter (legitimated) of King Henry II of France by a young Piedmontese, Filippa Duc. (Diane was often thought, however, to have been the illegitimate daughter of Diane de Poitiers.) She was known for her culture and intelligence as well ...
Diane De Poitiers, Duchesse De Valentinois
mistress of Henry II of France. Throughout his reign she held court as queen of France in all but name, while the real queen, Catherine de Medicis, was forced to live in comparative obscurity. Diane seems to have concerned herself ...
Dianthus
plant genus of the pink family. See pink.
© 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica Australia Ltd
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