stream in central Yukon Territory, Canada, one of the main headstreams of the Yukon River. It was named in 1840 by Robert Campbell for Sir John Henry Pelly, governor of the Hudson's Bay Company. Rising in the Mackenzie Mountains near ...
peninsula of 8,278 square miles (21,439 square km), a large, mountainous body of land jutting southward into the Mediterranean that since antiquity has been a major region of Greece, joined to the rest of mainland Greece by the Isthmus of ...
military coalition of Greek city-states led by Sparta, formed in the 6th century BC. League policy, usually decisions on questions of war, peace, or alliance, was determined by federal congresses, summoned by the Spartans when they thought fit; each member ...
(431-404 BC), war fought between the two leading city-states in ancient Greece, Athens and Sparta. Each stood at the head of alliances that, between them, included nearly every Greek city-state. The fighting engulfed virtually the entire Greek world, and it ...
legendary founder of the Pelopid dynasty at Mycenae in the Greek Peloponnese, which was probably named for him. Pelops was a grandson of Zeus, the king of the gods. According to many accounts, his father, Tantalus, cooked and served Pelops ...
any of a number of glove, racket, or bat court games requiring a rubber-cored ball. These games arose from the old French game known as jeux de paume. Varieties of this game are played in many parts of the world.
coastal city, southeastern Rio Grande do Sul estado (state), southern Brazil. It is located on the left bank of the Sao Goncalo Canal, the river that connects Mirim Lagoon with the Patos Lagoon. Founded in 1780 as ...
river in southern Brazil, rising on the western slope of the Serra do Mar at Alto do Bispo in Santa Catarina state, on the Atlantic coast. It arches northwestward across the uplands for approximately 280 miles (450 km) before receiving ...
the cooling of one junction and the heating of the other when electric current is maintained in a circuit of material consisting of two dissimilar conductors; the effect is even stronger in circuits containing dissimilar semiconductors. In a circuit consisting ...
French physicist who discovered (1834) that at the junction of two dissimilar metals an electric current will produce heat or cold, depending on the direction of current flow. The effect, known by his name, is used in devices for measuring ...
ancient Egyptian city on the easternmost mouth of the Nile River (long silted up). The Egyptians likely called it Sa'inu and also Per-Amon (House of Amon), whence perhaps the site's modern name, Tell Farama. It lies about 20 miles (32 ...
in human anatomy, basin-shaped complex of bones that connects the trunk and legs, supports and balances the trunk, and contains and supports the intestines, urinary bladder, and internal sex organs. The pelvic girdle consists of paired hipbones, connected in front ...
general, acute inflammation of the pelvic cavity in women, caused by bacterial infection of the cervix, uterus, ovaries, or Fallopian tubes. The disease is most often transmitted by sexual intercourse and is usually the result of infection with gonorrhea or ...
city, Sumatera Utara (North Sumatra) provinsi (province), Sumatra, Indonesia. It is about 50 miles (80 km) southeast of Medan, the provincial capital, with which it is connected by a major road and railway. The second most populous ...
island in the Indian Ocean, lying 35 miles (56 km) off the coast of East Africa, opposite the port of Tanga, Tanzania. The island is 42 miles (67 km) long and 14 miles (22 km) wide. As the Arabic name, ...
town, historic and present county of Pembrokeshire (Sir Benfro), Wales, comprising the localities of Pembroke and Pembroke Dock on the south shore of the Milford Haven inlet. The older locality, Pembroke, incorporated in 1090 by royal charter, was a walled ...
light, drop-leaf table designed for occasional use, probably deriving its name from Henry Herbert, 9th Earl of Pembroke (1693-1751), a noted connoisseur and amateur architect. The table has two drawers and flaps on either side that can be raised by ...
nee Mary Sidney patroness of the arts and scholarship and a notable translator. She was the sister of Sir Philip Sidney, who dedicated to her his Arcadia. After his death she published it and completed his verse translation of the ...
the Earl of Pembroke of the second Herbert creation, a leading figure in the reigns of Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I of England. His father, Sir Richard Herbert, was an illegitimate son of William, the 1st Earl of ...
county of southwestern Wales, bounded on the northeast by Ceredigion, on the east by Carmarthenshire, on the south by the Bristol Channel, and on the west and northwest by St. Bride's Bay and Cardigan Bay of St. George's Channel. The ...
a group of skin diseases characterized by large blisters that appear on the skin and mucous membranes. Pemphigus diseases include pemphigus vulgaris, pemphigus vegetans, pemphigus foliaceus, pemphigus erythematosus, and benign familial pemphigus.
artwork executed wholly or in part with pen and ink, usually on paper. Pen drawing is fundamentally a linear method of making images. In pure pen drawing in which the artist wishes to supplement his outlines with tonal suggestions of ...
international organization of writers. The original PEN was founded in London in 1921 by the English novelist John Galsworthy, and it has since grown to include writers worldwide. The name PEN is an acronym standing for "poets, playwrights, editors, essayists, ...
distant or overseas settlement established for punishing criminals by forced labour and isolation from society. Although a score of nations in Europe and Latin America transported their criminals to widely scattered penal colonies, such colonies were developed mostly by the ...
laws passed against Roman Catholics in Britain and Ireland after the Reformation that penalized the practice of the Roman Catholic religion and imposed civil disabilities on Catholics. Various acts passed in the 16th and 17th centuries prescribed fines and imprisonment ...
island of Malaysia, lying in the Strait of Malacca off the northwest coast of peninsular Malaya, from which it is separated by a narrow strait whose smallest width is 2.5 miles (4 km). Penang Island is roughly oval in shape. ...
household gods of the Romans and other Latin peoples. In the narrow sense, they were gods of the penus ("household provision"), but by extension their protection reached the entire household. They are associated with other deities of the house, such ...
slender rod of a solid marking substance, such as graphite, enclosed in a cylinder of wood, metal, or plastic; used as an implement for writing, drawing, or marking. In 1565 the German-Swiss naturalist Conrad Gesner first described a writing instrument ...
drawing executed with an instrument composed of graphite enclosed in a wood casing and intended either as a sketch for a more elaborate work in another medium, an exercise in visual expression, or a finished work. The cylindrical graphite pencil, ...
any of several slender South American fishes belonging to three groups of characins, treated by some authorities as three separate families and by others as a single family, Characidae. Pencil fish pick animal food from the bottom or from plant ...
lake in Kaniksu National Forest, northwestern Idaho, U.S. The largest lake in Idaho, it is about 40 miles (65 km) long and 4 miles (6.5 km) wide and covers an area of some 125 square miles (325 square km). It ...
Anglo-Saxon king of Mercia from about 632 until 654, who made Mercia one of the most powerful kingdoms in England and temporarily delayed the rise of Northumbria.
in jewelry, ornament suspended from a bracelet, earring, or, especially, a necklace. Pendants are derived from the primitive practice of wearing amulets or talismans around the neck. The practice dates from the Stone Age, when pendants consisted of such objects ...
in architecture, sculpted ornament or elongated boss terminating the fan, or pendant, vaulting, associated with late English Gothic architecture of the Perpendicular period (15th century). Such devices are also to be found hanging from the framing of open timber roofs ...
in architecture, a triangular segment of a spherical surface, filling in the upper corners of a room, in order to form, at the top, a circular support for a dome. The challenge of supporting a dome over an enclosed square ...
U.S. politician who created a powerful political machine in Missouri. Critics of Pres. Harry S. Truman frequently linked his name with Pendergast, a former associate.
borough (district), administrative county of Lancashire, England, on the eastern boundary of the county. Most of the borough-including its largest towns Burnley, Nelson, and Colne-lies in the historic county of Lancashire, but an area in the northeast, including the towns ...
city, seat (1868) of Umatilla county, northeastern Oregon, U.S., on the Umatilla River, adjacent to the Umatilla Indian Reservation. Situated on the Oregon Trail, it was founded in 1869 by G.W. Bailey and named for George Hunt Pendleton, a prominent ...
(Jan. 16, 1883), landmark U.S. legislation establishing the tradition and mechanism of permanent federal employment based on merit rather than on political party affiliation (the spoils system).
American lawyer and legislator, an advocate of civil service reform and sponsor of the Pendleton Civil Service Act (1883), which created the modern civil service system.
