long narrow arm of the sea, commonly extending far inland, that results from marine inundation of a glaciated valley. Many fjords are astonishingly deep; Sogn Fjord in Norway is 1,308 m (4,290 feet) deep, and Canal Messier in Chile is ...
Serbo-Croatian Matija Vlacic Ilir Lutheran Reformer, pioneer in church historical studies, and theological controversialist who created a lasting rift within Lutheranism.
the Indian plum family, belonging to the violet order (Violales) and comprising about 85 genera of widely distributed tropical and subtropical trees and shrubs. Various species yield edible fruit or commercially useful wood.
a piece of cloth, bunting, or similar material displaying the insignia of a community, an armed force, an office, or an individual. A flag is usually, but not always, oblong and is attached by one edge to a staff or ...
(subphylum Mastigophora), any of a group of protozoans, mostly uninucleate organisms, that possess, at some time in the life cycle, one to many flagella for locomotion and sensation. (A flagellum is a hairlike structure capable of whiplike lashing movements that ...
in religion, the disciplinary or devotional practice of beating with whips. Many theories have been offered to explain the phenomenon. It has been interpreted as a driving out of evil spirits, as purification, as a form of sadism, and as ...
hairlike structure that acts primarily as an organelle of locomotion in the cells of many living organisms. Flagella, characteristic of the protozoan group Mastigophora, also occur on the gametes of algae, fungi, mosses, and slime molds. Flagellar motion causes water ...
(from Old French flageol: "pipe," or "tabor pipe"), wind instrument closely related to the recorder. Like the recorder it is a fipple, or whistle, flute-i.e., one sounded by a stream of breath directed through a duct to strike the sharp ...
American illustrator, poster artist, and portrait painter known for his illustrations of buxom girls and particularly for his World War I recruiting poster of a pointing Uncle Sam with the caption "I Want You" (see Uncle Sam). The poster was ...
U.S. financier and partner of John D. Rockefeller, Sr., in establishing the Standard Oil Company; he pioneered in the development of Florida as a U.S. vacation centre.
city, seat (1891) of Coconino county, north-central Arizona, U.S. The San Francisco Peaks are immediately north of the city, which is encircled by the Coconino National Forest. Lumberjacks celebrating the 4th of July, 1876, nailed a U.S. flag to the ...
Italian screenwriter, playwright, novelist, journalist, and drama critic who was especially noted for his social satires. He became a leading figure of the Italian motion-picture industry after World War II, collaborating with writer Tullio Pinelli on the early films of ...
ancient hand tool for threshing grain. It consists of two pieces of wood: the handstaff, or helve, and the beater, joined by a thong. The handstaff is a light rod several feet long, the beater a shorter piece. With a ...
chief minister of King William II Rufus of England (ruled 1087-1100). Of Norman origin, Ranulf was made keeper of the seal for King William I the Conqueror about 1083, and during the reign of William II he became royal chaplain, ...
a rich, deep-red glaze slashed with streaks of purple and turquoise used to decorate pottery, particularly porcelain. The effect results from a particular method of firing a glaze that incorporates copper; the method was first discovered by the Chinese of ...
chalk promontory, East Riding of Yorkshire geographic county, historic county of Yorkshire, England, where the Yorkshire Wolds project 4 miles (6 km) into the North Sea. The northern cliffs, 400 feet (120 metres) in elevation, are a breeding ground for ...
rapidly reacting body of gas, commonly a mixture of air and a combustible gas, that gives off heat and, usually, light and is self-propagating. Flame propagation is explained by two theories: heat conduction and diffusion. In heat conduction, heat flows ...
military assault weapon that projects a stream of blazing oil or thickened gasoline against enemy positions. As used in World War II and later wars it consisted basically of one or more fuel tanks, a cylinder of compressed gas to ...
in ancient Rome, a priest devoted exclusively to the worship of one deity; the name derives from a root meaning "he who burns offerings." Of the 15 flamines, the most important were Dialis, Martialis, and Quirinalis, who served Jupiter, Mars, ...
form of song, dance, and instrumental (mostly guitar) music commonly associated with the Andalusian Gypsies of southern Spain. (There, the Roma [Gypsy] people and their language are known as Calo, or Gitano.) The roots of flamenco, though somewhat mysterious, seem ...
any of five species of tall, pink, wading birds with thick downturned bills. Flamingos have slender legs, long, graceful necks, large wings, and short tails. They range from about 90 to 150 cm (3 to 5 feet) tall.
American doo-wop vocal group of the 1950s noted for their tight, pristine harmonies. The principal members were Zeke Carey (b. January 24, 1933, Bluefield, Virginia, U.S., ), Jake Carey (b. September 9, 1926, Pulaski, Virginia, -d. December 10, 1997, Lanham, ...
Roman political leader who repeatedly challenged the authority of the Senate. A plebeian, he held the tribunate in 232. Despite the opposition of the Senate and (according to legend) of his own father, he won passage of a measure to ...
region that comprises the northern half of Belgium. Flanders was created in 1995 in the reorganization of Belgium's provincial administration along ethnic-linguistic lines. It includes the Flemish-speaking provinces of Antwerp, East Flanders, Limburg, Flemish Brabant, and West Flanders (qq.v.). The ...
medieval principality in the southwest of the Low Countries, now included in the French departement of Nord (q.v.), the Belgian provinces of East Flanders and West Flanders (qq.v.), and the Dutch province of Zeeland (q.v.). The name appeared as early ...
fabric made in plain or twill weave, usually with carded yarns. It is napped, most often on both sides, the degree of napping ranging from slight to so heavy that the twill weave is obscured. Fibre composition and amount of ...
(Fremontodendron californicum), shrub of the cacao, or chocolate, family (Sterculiaceae) of the order Malvales, native to southwestern North America. The lower leaf surfaces have a felty texture. The shrub grows up to 5 m (16 feet) tall and bears alternate, ...
in phonetics, a consonant sound produced by a single quick flip of the tongue against the upper part of the mouth, often heard as a short r in Spanish (e.g., in pero, "but") and similar to the pronunciation of the ...
combustible device used to emit a dazzlingly bright light for signaling or illumination on railroads and highways and in military operations. In pyrotechnics the term is applied either to a coloured-fire composition burned in a loose heap or to a ...
any star that varies in brightness, sometimes by more than one magnitude, within a few minutes. The cause is thought to be the eruption of flares much larger than, but otherwise similar to, those observed on the Sun. Flare stars ...
the lowest temperature at which a petroleum product will burn. Below this temperature insufficient petroleum vapour is available to support combustion. Before gasoline became important, kerosene was the main petroleum product produced. The tendency to leave as much of the ...
array of wavelengths detectable in the emissions from the limb of the Sun during the flash periods of a few seconds just after the beginning of totality during a solar eclipse or just before the instant of its termination. When ...
in motion pictures and literature, narrative technique of interrupting the chronological sequence of events to interject events of earlier occurrence. The earlier events often take the form of reminiscence. The flashback technique is as old as Western literature. In the ...
characters as described by the course of their development in a work of literature. Flat characters are two-dimensional in that they are relatively uncomplicated and do not change throughout the course of a work. By contrast, round characters are complex ...
any member of the approximately 500 species belonging to the insect family Cucujidae (order Coleoptera). These beetles, easily recognized by their narrow, flattened bodies, occur throughout the world and are usually brown in colour, although some species are red.
