Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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oregano ... Orient-Express

oregano: flavourful dried leaves and flowering tops of any of various perennial herbs of the mint family (Lamiaceae, or Labiatae), particularly Origanum vulgare, called wild marjoram in northern and central Europe, widely used to season many foods. The name is derived ...
Oregon: constituent state of the United States of America. To the north of the state's 97,073 square miles (251,419 square kilometres) of land and inland water lies Washington, from which Oregon receives the waters of the Columbia River; to the east, ...
Oregon: city, seat (1836) of Ogle county, northern Illinois, U.S. It lies on the Rock River, about 95 miles (155 km) west of Chicago. Early inhabitants of the region included Potawatomi and Winnebago Indians. It was founded in 1833 by John ...
Oregon Caves National Monument: cave complex in the Siskiyou Mountains of southwestern Oregon, U.S., near the California border. Established in 1909, the monument occupies a surface area of 0.8 square mile (2 square km). It consists of a single cave comprising a series of ...
Oregon City: city, seat (1843) of Clackamas county, northwestern Oregon, U.S., at Willamette Falls (40 feet [12 metres] high) and the juncture of the Clackamas and Willamette rivers. It forms part of a tri-city complex, just southeast of Portland, that includes Gladstone ...
Oregon grape: any of several species of the genus Mahonia, evergreen shrubs of the barberry family (Berberidaceae) grown for their ornamental value. M. aquifolium, the typical Oregon grape, is 90 cm (3 feet) or more tall and is native to the Pacific ...
Oregon Health and Science University: public, coeducational institution of higher learning in Portland, Oregon, U.S. It is specifically dedicated to biomedical research and patient medical care and to training health professionals, scientists, and engineers. The university comprises schools of medicine, dentistry, and nursing, and the ...
Oregon Question: in U.S.-Canadian history, dispute over ownership of the Pacific Northwest involving Spain, Russia, the United States, and Great Britain, all of which had established claims based on exploration or settlement by their nationals. Spain first vacated its claims by the ...
Oregon State University: public, coeducational institution of higher learning in Corvallis, Oregon, U.S. It is a comprehensive research university with land-, sea-, and space-grant status and awards undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees. The university comprises a graduate school, an honours college, an interdisciplinary ...
Oregon Trail: in U.S. history, one of the great emigrant routes to the Northwest, running from Independence, Mo., to the Columbia River region of Oregon. It crossed about 2,000 miles (3,200 km) of rugged terrain, including desert and Indian territory.
Oregon, University of: public, coeducational institution of higher learning in Eugene, Oregon, U.S. The university comprises colleges of arts and sciences, business, and education; schools of architecture and allied arts, law, music, and journalism and communication; and a graduate school. In addition to ...
Oregonian, The: morning daily newspaper published in Portland, Oregon, one of the leading dailies of the U.S. Northwest and for many years during the 19th century the only newspaper in the seven northwesternmost states.
Oreiller, Henri: French skier and auto racer who won a double championship in the downhill and combined events of Alpine skiing during the 1948 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, Switzerland. His downhill medal came at the debut of the event at the ...
Orekhovo-Zuyevo: city in Moscow oblast (province), western Russia, east of Moscow city, along the Klyazma River. Formed in 1917 through the amalgamation of several industrial villages, Orekhovo-Zuyevo is now one of the largest textile-manufacturing cities of Russia, specializing in cotton. Chemicals ...
Orellana, Francisco de: Spanish soldier and first European explorer of the Amazon River.
Orem: city, Utah county, north-central Utah, U.S., 4 miles (6.5 km) north of Provo. The Provo River flows to the east in Provo River canyon (containing the scenic Bridal Veil Falls), and to the west lies Utah Lake, a 150-square-mile (390-square-km) ...
Orenburg: oblast (province), western Russia, occupying an area that extends across the southern end of the Ural Mountains. It stretches from the limestone plateaus of the Obshchy Syrt in the west, across the low Urals ridges, to the flat Turgay Plateau ...
Orenburg: city and administrative centre of Orenburg oblast (province), western Russia, on the Ural River at the Sakmara confluence. Founded as a fortress in 1735 at the Ural-Or confluence, where Orsk now stands, it was moved to its present site in ...
Orense: town, capital of Orense provincia, in the comunidad autonoma ("autonomous community") of Galicia, northwestern Spain, situated along the eastern bank of the Mino River, south-southeast of La Coruna. Its name derives from its hot springs, which were known to the ...
Orense: provincia, northwestern Spain, the only landlocked province in the comunidad autonoma ("autonomous community") of Galicia. It is bounded by Portugal on the south and by the provincias of Pontevedra (west), La Coruna (north), Lugo (northeast), and Leon and Zamora (east). ...
Oreopithecus: extinct genus of primates found as fossils in Late Miocene deposits in East Africa and Early Pliocene deposits in southern Europe (11.2 to 3.4 million years ago). Oreopithecus is best known from complete but crushed specimens found in coal deposits ...
Oresme, Nicholas: French Roman Catholic bishop, scholastic philosopher, economist, and mathematician whose work provided some basis for the development of modern mathematics and science and of French prose, particularly its scientific vocabulary.
Oresteia: trilogy of tragic dramas by the ancient Greek dramatist Aeschylus, first performed in 458 BC. It is his last work and the only complete trilogy of Greek dramas that has survived.
Orestes: in Greek mythology, son of Agamemnon, king of Mycenae (or Argos), and his wife, Clytemnestra. According to Homer, Orestes was away when his father returned from Troy to meet his death at the hands of Aegisthus, his wife's lover. On ...
Orff, Carl: German composer known particularly for his operas and dramatic works and for his innovations in music education.
Orfila, Alejandro: Argentine diplomat who served as secretary-general of the Organization of American States (OAS) from 1975 to 1984.
organ: in music, a keyboard instrument, operated by the player's hands and feet, in which pressurized air produces notes through a series of pipes organized in scalelike rows. The term organ encompasses reed organs and electronic organs but, unless otherwise specified, ...
organ: in biology, a group of tissues in a living organism that have been adapted to perform a specific function. In higher animals, organs are grouped into organ systems; e.g., the esophagus, stomach, and liver are organs of the digestive system.
Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument: desert area in southwestern Arizona, U.S., at the Mexican border 12 miles (19 km) south of Ajo. Established in 1937 with an area of 517 square miles (1,339 square km), it preserves segments of the mountainous Sonoran Desert.
organ-pipe cactus: (species Lemairocereus, or Cereus, thurberi), plant belonging to the family Cactaceae, native to southern Arizona in the United States. Related species occur from Mexico to Venezuela and Peru and the West Indies. The name is also applied to a few ...
organ-pipe coral: (genus Tubipora), any of a genus of marine animals of the class Anthozoa (phylum Cnidaria). The single known species, Tubipora musica, occurs on reefs in shallow waters of the Indian and Pacific oceans and is characterized by long, parallel upright ...
organic compound: any of a large class of chemical compounds in which one or more atoms of carbon are covalently linked to atoms of other elements, most commonly hydrogen, oxygen, or nitrogen. The few carbon-containing compounds not classified as organic include carbides, ...
organic farming: system of crop cultivation employing biological methods of fertilization and pest control as substitutes for chemical fertilizers and pesticides; the latter products are regarded by proponents of organic methods as injurious to health and the environment and unnecessary for successful ...
organic form: the structure of a work that has grown naturally from the author's subject and materials as opposed to that of a work shaped by and conforming to artificial rules. The concept was developed by Samuel Taylor Coleridge to counter the ...
organic unity: in literature, a structural principle, first discussed by Plato (in Phaedrus, Gorgias, and The Republic) and later described and defined by Aristotle. The principle calls for internally consistent thematic and dramatic development, analogous to biological growth, which is the recurrent, ...
Organization of Pan Asian American Women: oldest public-policy organization devoted to concerns of Asian Pacific-American women, founded in 1976 to increase participation of Asian women in policy-making and leadership roles. It also serves as a national network for Asian Pacific-American women and provides leadership training to ...
organized crime: complex of highly centralized enterprises set up for the purpose of engaging in illegal activities. Although Europe and Asia have historically had their international rings of smugglers, jewel thieves, and drug traffickers, and Sicily and Japan have centuries-old criminal organizations, ...
organized labour: association and activities of workers in a trade or industry for the purpose of obtaining or assuring improvements in working conditions through their collective action.
organogenesis: in embryology, the series of organized integrated processes that transforms an amorphous mass of cells into a complete organ in the developing embryo. The cells of an organ-forming region undergo differential development and movement to form an organ primordium, or ...
organometallic compound: any of a class of substances in which the molecules contain at least one metal-to-carbon bond in which the carbon is part of an organic group. The class includes such compounds as tetraethyl lead-an antiknock gasoline additive and ferrocene, a ...
organum: originally, any musical instrument (later in particular an organ); the term attained its lasting sense, however, during the Middle Ages in reference to a polyphonic (many-voiced) setting, in certain specific styles, of Gregorian chant.
orgasm: climactic physiological state of heightened sexual excitement and gratification that is followed by relaxation of sexual tensions and the body's muscles.
Orgueil meteorite: object involved in the controversy about whether the organic matter in meteorites is evidence of extraterrestrial life. From a meteoric fall on the village of Orgueil, near Toulouse, France, on the night of May 14, 1864, some 20 fragments of ...
Orhan: the second ruler of the Ottoman dynasty, which had been founded by his father, Osman I. Orhan's reign (1324-60) marked the beginning of Ottoman expansion into the Balkans.
Orhon inscriptions: oldest extant Turkish writings, discovered in the valley of the Orhon River, northern Mongolia, in 1889 and deciphered in 1893 by the Danish philologist Vilhelm Thomsen. They are on two large monuments, erected in AD 732 and 735 in honour ...
Orhon River: river in north-central Mongolia. The river lies entirely within Mongolia and rises from the heavily forested slopes of the Hangayn Mountains. It flows east out of the mountains and then turns north, past Karakorum, the ancient capital of the Mongol ...
Oribe ware: type of Japanese ceramics, usually glazed in blue or green and first appearing during the Keicho and Genna eras (1596-1624). The name Oribe is derived from Furuta Oribe, a pupil of Sen Rikyu, under whose guidance it was first produced.
Oribe, Manuel Ceferino: second president of Uruguay (1835-38), a member of the Treinta y Tres Orientales, the legendary 33 nationalists who successfully fought for Uruguayan independence in the Cisplatine War (1825-28).
oribi: (Ourebia ourebia), swift African antelope, family Bovidae (order Artiodactyla), living on sub-Saharan grasslands in pairs or small herds. The oribi is a graceful animal with a silky coat, large ears, and a short, bushy tail. It stands about 50-66 cm ...
oriel: in architecture, a bay window in an upper story, supported from below by projecting corbels, or brackets of stone or wood. Usually semihexagonal or rectangular in plan, oriels first became prevalent early in the 15th century. They were often placed ...
Orient-Express: luxury train that ran from Paris to Constantinople (Istanbul) for more than 80 years (1883-1977). Europe's first transcontinental express, it initially covered a route of more than 1,700 miles (about 2,740 km) that included brief stopovers in such cities as ...