Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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Iona ... Iraklion

Iona: island of the Inner Hebrides, Strathclyde region, Scotland. It is 3 miles (5 km) long by 1.5 miles (2.4 km) wide, with its highest point just under 330 feet (100 m) above sea level, and is separated by the Sound ...
Iona Community: missionary group of clergy and laymen within the Church of Scotland. It was founded in 1938 by George MacLeod, a parish minister in Glasgow who hoped to infuse a new vitality into Christianity. He was convinced that the wide gap ...
Ionesco, Eugene: Romanian-born French dramatist whose one-act "antiplay" La Cantatrice chauve (1949; The Bald Soprano) inspired a revolution in dramatic techniques and helped inaugurate the Theatre of the Absurd. He was elected to the French Academy in 1970.
Ionia: ancient region comprising the central sector of the western coast of Anatolia (now in Turkey). It was bounded by the regions of Aeolis on the north and Caria on the south and included the adjacent islands. Ionia consisted of a ...
Ionian: any member of an important eastern division of the ancient Greek people, who gave their name to a district on the western coast of Anatolia (now Turkey). The Ionian dialect of Greek was closely related to Attic and was spoken ...
Ionian Islands: island group off the west coast of Greece, stretching south from the Albanian coast to the southern tip of the Peloponnese, and often called Heptanesos ("Seven Islands"). The islands are Corfu (Kerkira), Cephalonia (Kefallinia), Zacynthus (Zakinthos, Zante), Leucas (Levkas), Ithaca ...
Ionian school: school of Greek philosophers of the 6th to 5th century BC, including Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Heracleitus, Anaxagoras, Diogenes of Apollonia, Archelaus, and Hippon. Although Ionia was the original centre of their activity, they differed so greatly from one another in ...
Ionian Sea: part of the Mediterranean Sea, lying between Greece (east), Sicily (southwest), and Italy (west and northwest). Though considered by ancient authors to be part of the Adriatic Sea, the Ionian Sea is now seen as a separate body of water. ...
Ionic alphabet: . In 403 the Ionic alphabet used in the Anatolian city of Miletus was adopted for use in Athens, and by the middle of the 4th century the Ionic had become the common, 24-letter, classical Greek alphabet.
ionic bond: type of linkage formed from the electrostatic attraction between oppositely charged ions in a chemical compound. Such a bond forms when the valence (outermost) electrons of one atom are transferred permanently to another atom. The atom that loses the electrons ...
Ionic dialect: any of several Ancient Greek dialects spoken in Euboea, in the Northern Cyclades, and from approximately 1000 BC in Asiatic Ionia, where Ionian colonists from Athens founded their cities. Attic and Ionic dialects together form a dialect group.
ionic foot: in prosody, a foot of verse that consists of either two long and two short syllables (also called major ionic or a maiore) or two short and two long syllables (also called minor ionic or a minore).
Ionic order: one of the orders of classical architecture. Its distinguishing feature is the twin volutes, or spiral scrolls, of its capital. See order.
ionium-thorium dating: method of establishing the time of origin of marine sediments according to the amount of ionium and thorium they contain.
ionization: in chemistry and physics, any process by which electrically neutral atoms or molecules are converted to electrically charged atoms or molecules (ions). Ionization is one of the principal ways that radiation, such as charged particles and X rays, transfers its ...
ionization chamber: radiation detector used for determining the intensity of a beam of radiation or for counting individual charged particles. The device may consist of a gas-filled, cylindrical container in which an electric field is maintained by impressing a voltage that keeps ...
ionization potential: in chemistry, the amount of energy required to remove an electron from an isolated atom or molecule. There is an ionization potential for each successive electron removed; the ionization potential associated with removal of the first (most loosely held) electron, ...
ionosphere: region of the Earth's atmosphere in which the number of ions, or electrically charged particles-resulting from the action of extraterrestrial (primarily solar) radiation on the neutral atoms and molecules of the air-is large enough to affect the propagation of radio ...
iora: smallest of the fairy bluebird species. See fairy bluebird.
Iorga, Nicolae: scholar and statesman, Romania's greatest national historian, who also served briefly as its prime minister (1931-32).
Iowa: North American Indian people of Siouan linguistic stock who in their prehistoric period migrated westward from north of the Great Lakes to the general area of the present state of Iowa. In 1836 they ceded their lands to the United ...
Iowa: constituent state of the United States of America. As a north central state, it forms a bridge between the forests of the east and the grasslands of the high Prairie Plains to the west. Its gently rolling landscape rises slowly ...
Iowa City: city, seat (1839) of Johnson county, east-central Iowa, U.S., on the Iowa River, 27 miles (43 km) south of Cedar Rapids. Founded as territorial capital of Iowa in 1839, it lost the state capital to Des Moines in 1857 but ...
Iowa Great Lakes: popular resort area in Dickinson county, northwestern Iowa, U.S., just south of the Minnesota border. Included are Spirit (or Big Spirit), West Okoboji, East Okoboji, and Silver lakes, all of which are of glacial origin. Spirit Lake, the largest-4 miles ...
Iowa River: river flowing through the centre of Iowa, U.S. It rises as two headstreams, the East Branch Iowa and West Branch Iowa rivers, in the north-central part of the state; the Iowa proper is formed by their confluence near Belmond in ...
Iowa State University: public, coeducational institution of higher learning in Ames, Iowa, U.S. The university comprises colleges of agriculture, business, design, education, engineering, family and consumer sciences, liberal arts and sciences, and veterinary medicine. The Graduate College offers a broad range of master's ...
Iowa, University of: public, coeducational institution of higher learning in Iowa City, Iowa, U.S. It comprises colleges of business administration, dentistry, law, public health, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, education, engineering, and liberal arts and schools of journalism and mass communication, music, library and information ...
Ipameri: city, southeastern Goias state, south central Brazil. Lying in rolling uplands between the Verissimo and Corumba rivers, tributaries of the Paranaiba, it is primarily a cattle-shipping centre that also houses meat-processing and rice-hulling plants. Additional income is derived from the ...
Ipatieff, Vladimir Nikolayevich: Russian-born U.S. chemist who was one of the first to investigate high-pressure catalytic reactions of hydrocarbons and who developed a process for manufacturing high-octane gasoline.
Iphicrates: Athenian general known chiefly for his use of lightly armed troops (peltasts); he increased the length of their weapons and improved their mobility by reducing defensive armour.
Iphigeneia: in Greek mythology, eldest daughter of Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, and his wife Clytemnestra. Her father had to sacrifice her to the goddess Artemis in order that the Achaean fleet, of which he was leader, might be delivered from the ...
Ipiales: city, southwestern Colombia. It is located in the Andes Mountains on the banks of the Guaitara River, at 9,505 feet (2,897 metres) above sea level, and is known as the "city of the three volcanoes."
Ipiutak culture: Eskimo culture of northwestern Alaska, probably dating from the 2nd to the 6th century AD. A Siberian origin has been suggested, based on similarities in burial practices and ceremonialism, animal carvings and designs, and some use of iron; but evidence ...
Ipoh: city, Peninsular (West) Malaysia, on the Kinta River. Surrounded by steep hills, except to the south, it lies on a flat alluvial plain in the Kinta Valley. The name comes from a local tree, whose poisonous resin was once used ...
Ipomoea: genus of about 500 mostly warm-climate trees, shrubs, and twining and trailing herbaceous plants of the family Convolvulaceae with funnel-shaped flowers. Certain species of Ipomoea are sometimes considered as the separate genera Batatas, Quamoclit, Calonyction, Pharbitis, and Exogonium.
Ippitsusai Buncho: Japanese artist in the ukiyo-e school, which depicted subjects drawn from everyday life.
Ippolitov-Ivanov, Mikhail: Russian composer of orchestral works and operas, of which the most popular were influenced by Caucasian and Georgian folk music.
iproniazid: the first drug of the monoamine-oxidase inhibitor series to be introduced into medicine (1958). It was employed as an antidepressant until it was found to cause liver damage. Prior to its introduction as an antidepressant, iproniazid was studied as a ...
Ipsen, Bodil: Danish actress who, with her frequent stage partner, the character actor Poul Reumert, reilluminated the dramas of Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg.
Ipsus, Battle of: military engagement fought at Ipsus, Phrygia, in 301 BC between two camps of the "successors" (diodochoi) of Alexander the Great, part of a struggle that accelerated the dismemberment of Alexander's empire begun after his death.
Ipswich: town (township), Essex county, northeastern Massachusetts, U.S. It lies along the Ipswich River (there bridged since 1764), 28 miles (45 km) north-northeast of Boston. Settled in 1633 as Agawam, it was incorporated in 1634 and renamed for Ipswich, England. Lace ...
Ipswich: North Sea port town and borough (district), administrative and historic county of Suffolk, England, at the head of the Orwell estuary. Ipswich prospered as a port for the export of East Anglian textiles from medieval times to the 17th century. ...
Ipuwer: ancient Egyptian sage. He perhaps served as a treasury official during the last years of Pepi II Neferkare (reigned c. 2294-c. 2200 BC) and is known only because of the discovery of one poorly preserved manuscript relating his speech to ...
IQ: (from "intelligence quotient"), a number used to express the relative intelligence of a person. It is one of many intelligence tests.
iqa'at: in Islamic music, rhythmic modes-i.e., patterns of strong, intermediate, and weak beats, separated by pauses of various lengths. A well-developed system of such modes was described by medieval theorists. Although six or eight basic modes are included in most treatises, ...
Iqaluit: town, capital of Nunavut territory and headquarters of Baffin region, Canada. It lies at the head of Frobisher Bay, on southeastern Baffin Island. Iqaluit is the largest community in the eastern Canadian Arctic. It was established as a trading post ...
Iqbal, Sir Muhammad: also spelled Muhammad Ikbal Indian poet and philosopher, known for his influential efforts to direct his fellow Muslims toward the establishment of a separate Muslim state, an aspiration that was eventually realized in the country of Pakistan. He was knighted ...
iqta': in the Islamic empire of the Caliphate, land granted to army officials for limited periods in lieu of a regular wage. It has sometimes been erroneously compared to the fief of medieval Europe. The iqta' system was established in the ...
Iquique: capital of Iquique provincia and of Tarapaca region, northern Chile. It is located on a rocky peninsula in the rainless Atacama Desert, overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Its anchorage is protected from the open sea by the low, barren offshore island ...
Iquitos: Amazon River port and capital of Loreto departamento, northeastern Peru. It is located about 2,300 miles (3,700 km) upstream from the Atlantic Ocean and 640 miles (1,030 km) north-northeast of Lima. It was founded in 1864 at the site of ...
Iraklion: largest city, principal port of the Greek island of Crete, and capital of the nomos (department) of Iraklion. The city lies on the north coast just northwest of the ancient Minoan capital of Knossos. Its name derives from the ancient ...