Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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Tennis Court Oath ... Terek River

Tennis Court Oath: (June 20, 1789), dramatic act of defiance by representatives of the nonprivileged classes of the French nation (the Third Estate) during the meeting of the Estates-General (traditional assembly) at the beginning of the French Revolution. The deputies of the Third ...
tenno: (Japanese: "heavenly emperor"), the title of Japan's chief of state, bestowed posthumously together with the reign name chosen by the emperor (e.g., Meiji Tenno, the emperor Meiji). The term was first used at the beginning of the Nara period (710-784) ...
Tennsift, Wadi: river in west-central Morocco. The Wadi Tennsift rises from several headstreams in the Haut (High) Atlas mountains and flows westward for 160 miles (260 km) to the Atlantic Ocean south of Safi. The Tennsift's river valley, the Haouz lowland, has ...
Tennyson, Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron: English poet often regarded as the chief representative of the Victorian age in poetry. He was raised to the peerage in 1884.
tenor: highest male vocal range, normally extending approximately from the second B below middle C to the G above; an extremely high voice, extending into the alto range, is usually termed a countertenor (q.v.). In instrument families, tenor refers to the ...
tenor and vehicle: the components of a metaphor, with the tenor referring to the concept, object, or person meant, and the vehicle being the image that carries the weight of the comparison. The words were first used in this sense by the critic ...
tenor drum: cylindrical drum larger and deeper toned than the closely related snare drum and lacking snares. It is usually about 18 inches (45 cm) in diameter and 14 inches (35 cm) in height and is normally beaten with two soft-headed sticks. ...
tenor horn: brass wind instrument derived from the cornet and the valved bugle, or flugelhorn. A saxhorn of tenor range and a tenor bugle are also sometimes called tenor horns.
tenorite: copper oxide mineral (CuO) found as gray-to-black metallic crystals as a sublimation product on lavas. Melaconite, the massive variety, is common as earthy deposits in the oxidized zone of copper lodes. Crystals of tenorite have been identified at Mount Vesuvius ...
tenrec: any of 29 species of shrewlike and hedgehoglike mammals. Most are endemic to Madagascar and nearby islands, but the otter shrews (subfamily Potamogalinae) are native to the African mainland.
Tenreiro, Francisco Jose: African poet writing in Portuguese, whose verse expresses the sufferings caused by colonialist exploitation of the indentured labourers of the island of Sao Tome.
Tenri: city, Nara ken (prefecture), Honshu, Japan. It lies in the eastern part of the Nara basin. The area around the city contains many burial mounds and shrines dating from early historic times. Tenri became well-known in 1881, when the headquarters ...
Tenrikyo: (Japanese: "Religion of Divine Wisdom"), largest and most successful of the modern Shinto sects in Japan. Though founded in the 19th century, it is often considered in connection with the evangelistic "new religions" of contemporary Japan.
Tensas River: river of northeastern and eastern Louisiana, U.S. It rises in East Carroll parish, as Tensas Bayou, and generally flows southwestward over a course of approximately 250 miles (400 km), joining the Ouachita River at Jonesville, as the Tensas River, in ...
tense: in grammar, a verbal category relating the time of a narrated event to the time of the speech event. In many languages the concept of time is expressed not by the verb but by other parts of speech (temporal adverbials ...
Tensho Kotai Jingu-kyo: ("Dancing Religion"), one of the "new religions" of Japan that have emerged in the post-World War II period. It was founded by Kitamura Sayo (1900-67), a peasant of Yamaguchi Prefecture, whose charismatic preaching took the form of rhythmic singing and ...
tensile strength: maximum load that a material can support without fracture when being stretched, divided by the original cross-sectional area of the material. Tensile strengths have dimensions of force per unit area and in the English system of measurement are commonly expressed ...
tension: a balance maintained in an artistic work (such as a poem, painting, or musical composition) between opposing forces or elements; a controlled dramatic or dynamic quality.
tenson: a lyric poem of dispute or personal abuse composed by Provencal troubadours in which two opponents speak alternate stanzas, lines, or groups of lines usually identical in structure. In some cases these debates were imaginary, and both sides of the ...
tent: portable shelter, consisting of a rigid framework covered by some flexible substance. Tents are used for a wide variety of purposes, including recreation, exploration, military encampment, and public gatherings such as circuses, religious services, theatrical performances, and exhibitions of plants ...
tent caterpillar moth: any member of the insect genus Malacosoma of the Lasiocampidae family of moths (order Lepidoptera) that also includes the eggars, named for their egg-shaped cocoons, and the lappets, having lateral lobes, or lappets, on each segment of the larva. The ...
tentacle worm: (Thelepus), any of a genus of tube-dwelling segmented worms of the class Polychaeta (phylum Annelida). They are sedentary forms that remain fixed to the sea bottom except as larvae. T. cincinnatus, 5 to 10 centimetres (about 2 to 4 inches) ...
Tenterfield: town, northeastern New South Wales, Australia, in the Northern Tablelands (New England district) of the Eastern Highlands. Founded in 1848 and named after the Scottish homestead of an early settler, it was gazetted a town in 1851 and a municipality ...
tenure: length and conditions of office in civil, judicial, academic, and similar services. Security of tenure, usually granted in the civil service and in academic appointments after a probationary period, is considered an essential condition of maintaining the independence and freedom ...
Tenure of Office Act: (March 2, 1867), in the post-Civil War period of U.S. history, law forbidding the president to remove civil officers without senatorial consent. The law was passed over Pres. Andrew Johnson's veto by Radical Republicans in Congress in their struggle to ...
Tenzing Norgay: Tibetan mountaineer who, with Edmund (later Sir Edmund) Hillary of New Zealand, was the first person to set foot on the summit of Mount Everest, the world's highest peak (29,035 feet [8,850 metres]).
Teofilo Otoni: city, east-central Minas Gerais estado (state), southwestern Brazil. It is located on the Todos os Santos River in the Mucuri River valley, at 1,047 feet (319 metres) above sea level. It was given city status in 1878. ...
teosinte: (Zea mexicana or Euchlaena mexicana), tall, stout, annual grass of the family Poaceae, native to Mexico. Teosinte is related to corn (maize) and grows in large clumps, with tassels (staminate flowers) like those of corn. It usually branches at the ...
Teotihuacan: the most important and largest city of pre-Aztec central Mexico, located about 30 miles (50 km) northeast of modern Mexico City. At its apogee (c. AD 500), it encompassed some 8 square miles (20 square km) and supported a population ...
Tepe Gawra: ancient Mesopotamian settlement east of the Tigris River near Nineveh and the modern city of Mosul, northwestern Iraq. It was excavated from 1931 to 1938 by archaeologists from the University of Pennsylvania. The site, which apparently was continuously occupied from ...
Tepe Yahya: ancient Iranian site located northeast of Dowlatabad in southeastern Iran; it has yielded valuable information on the economic exchange patterns of the 3rd millennium BC. Excavations (1968-70) by the American School of Prehistoric Research have revealed that Tepe Yahya was ...
tepee: tall tent dwelling of the Indians of the American Great Plains. Although it is often thought to be the dwelling used by all North American Indians, only the Plains tribes, representing about one-fifth of them, ever used the tepee, and ...
Tepehuan: Middle American Indians of southern Chihuahua, southern Durango, and northwestern Jalisco states in northwestern Mexico. The Tepehuan are divided into the Northern Tepehuan, of Chihuahua, and the Southern Tepehuan, of Durango. Both speak dialects of the same language, Tepehuan, a ...
tephrochronology: method of age determination that makes use of layers of ash (tephra). Tephra layers are excellent time-stratigraphic markers, but, to establish a chronology, it is necessary to identify and correlate as many tephra units as possible over the widest possible ...
tephroite: olivine mineral found only in iron-manganese ore deposits and skarns and in metamorphosed manganese-rich sediments, such as those of Cornwall, Eng., and Franklin, N.J., in the United States. Tephroite (manganese silicate; Mn₂SiO₄) forms a solid solution series with the olivine ...
Tepic: city, capital of Nayarit estado ("state"), west-central Mexico, lying at 3,002 feet (915 m) above sea level along the Tepic River, at the foot of extinct Sanganguey volcano. Founded in 1542, much of the city retains its colonial atmosphere. The ...
Teplice: city, Severocesky kraj (region), northwestern Czech Republic, on a rocky spur below the Ore Mountains (Krusne hory). Local radioactive springs (82°-115° F [28°-46° C]) were, according to archaeological evidence, known to the Romans and are mentioned in an 8th-century Bohemian ...
Tequendama Falls: waterfalls on the Bogota (Funza) River, which is a tributary of the Magdalena River, in the Andean Cordillera (mountains) Oriental, central Colombia. One of the country's major tourist attractions, the falls are located in a forested area 20 miles (32 ...
tequila: distilled liquor, usually clear in colour and unaged, that is made from the fermented juice of the Mexican agave plant, specifically several varieties of Agave tequilana Weber. Tequila contains 40-50 percent alcohol (80-100 U.S. proof). The beverage, ...
Tequistlatec: Indian people centred in the Sierra Madre del Sur of Oaxaca estado ("state"), Mexico. Their subsistence is based on agriculture (staples are corn [maize], chilies, and beans), hunting, gathering, and animal husbandry. Towns and villages comprise one- and two-room houses, ...
Teraina Island: coral atoll of the Northern Line Islands, part of Kiribati, in the west-central Pacific Ocean. With a circumference of 9 miles (14 km), the atoll has a land area of 3 square miles (8 square km). It was sighted in ...
Teramo: city, capital of Teramo provincia, Abruzzi regione, central Italy. It lies at the confluence of the Tordino and Vezzola rivers, between the Adriatic Sea and the Gran Sasso d'Italia mountain group, northwest of Pescara. Teramo was built on the site ...
teratology: branch of the biological sciences dealing with the causes, development, description, and classification of congenital malformations in plants and animals and with the experimental production, in some instances, of these malformations. Congenital malformations arise from interruption in the early development ...
Terauchi Masatake, Count: Japanese soldier and politician who served as Japanese prime minister (1916-18) during World War I.
terbium: (Tb), chemical element, rare-earth metal of transition Group IIIb of the periodic table. One of the least abundant of the rare earths, terbium, when reduced to metallic form, is silvery white and is slowly oxidized by air at room temperatures ...
Terborch, Gerard: Dutch Baroque painter who developed his own distinctive type of interior genre in which he depicted with grace and fidelity the atmosphere of well-to-do, middle-class life in 17th-century Holland.
Terbrugghen, Hendrik: Dutch painter, among the earliest northern followers of the Italian painter Caravaggio.
Terceira Island: island, part of the Portuguese Azores archipelago, in the North Atlantic Ocean. It occupies an area of 153 square miles (397 square km). Terceira (The Third) was so called because it was the third island in the Azores to be ...
tercet: a unit or group of three lines of verse, usually containing rhyme, as in William Shakespeare's "The Phoenix and the Turtle": Death is now the phoenix' nest; And the turtle's loyal breastTo eternity doth rest,&elipsis;
terefah: any food, food product, or utensil that, according to the Jewish dietary laws (kashruth, q.v.), is not ritually clean or prepared according to law and is thus prohibited as unfit for Jewish use. Terefah is thus the antithesis of kosher ...
Terek River: river that rises in northern Georgia and flows north and then east through Russia to empty into the Caspian Sea. It is one of the main streams draining northward from the Caucasus mountain system. The Terek is 370 miles (600 ...