Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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tachycardia ... Taglioni, Marie

tachycardia: in physiology and medicine, a heart rate of more than 100 beats per minute. Tachycardia occurs normally during and after exercise or during stress and represents no danger to healthy individuals. In some cases, however, tachycardia occurs without apparent cause ...
tachylyte: glassy igneous rocks low in silica, such as basalt or diabase. Tachylytes are black with a pitchlike or resinous lustre; in thin sections they are characteristically brown and translucent, and the glass is crowded with granules of magnetite. Tachylytes are ...
tachyon: hypothetical subatomic particle whose velocity always exceeds that of light. The existence of the tachyon, though not experimentally established, appears consistent with the theory of relativity, which was originally thought to apply only to particles traveling at or less than ...
Tacitus: Roman orator and public official, probably the greatest historian and one of the greatest prose stylists who wrote in the Latin language. Among his works are the Germania, describing the Germanic tribes, the Historiae ...
Tacitus: Roman emperor in 275-276.
Tacloban: chartered city, northeastern Leyte, Philippines, on San Pedro Bay at the southern entrance to San Juanico Strait. It is the largest city and distributing centre in the eastern Visayas (Leyte and Samar). A port since 1874, Tacloban has a long ...
Tacna: southernmost departamento of Peru, bounded by the Pacific Ocean (southwest), Bolivia (northeast), and Chile (south). It occupies an area of 6,171 square miles (15,983 square km). In the coastal desert of the southwest, settlement depends on irrigation provided by the ...
Tacna: capital of Tacna departamento, southern Peru, on the Caplina River at 1,844 feet (562 m) above sea level, in the arid Andean foothills. When the Spaniards arrived at the site in the 16th century, it was occupied by Aymara Indians. ...
Tacoma: city, seat (1880) of Pierce county, western Washington, U.S., on Commencement Bay of Puget Sound, 30 miles (48 km) south of Seattle. The bay was the starting point (1841) of a U.S. surveying party led by Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, who ...
Tacoma Narrows Bridge: first suspension bridge across the Narrows of Puget Sound, connecting the Olympic Peninsula with the mainland of Washington state, U.S., and a landmark failure in engineering history. Four months after its opening, on the morning of November 7, 1940, in ...
Taconic orogeny: a mountain-building event that affected the Appalachian Geosyncline along the eastern coast of the United States. Evidence for the orogeny is most pronounced in the northern Appalachians, but its effects can be noted in the Ridge and Valley Province as ...
Taconic Range: part of the Appalachian mountain system, U.S., extending southward for 150 miles (240 km) from a point southwest of Brandon, Vt., to northern Putnam county, New York. It rises to Mount Equinox (3,816 feet [1,163 m]) in Vermont and includes ...
taconite: a low-grade siliceous iron formation in Minnesota, U.S., from which high-grade iron ore is derived. The iron formation consists of fine-grained silica with variable ratios of hematite and magnetite totaling less than 30 percent iron. Recovery of the iron requires ...
tactical weapons system: system integrating tactical weapons with electronic equipment for target acquisition, aiming, or fire control or a combination of such purposes. Tactical weapons are designed for offensive or defensive use at relatively short range with relatively immediate consequences. They include weapons ...
tactics: in warfare, the art and science of fighting battles on land, on sea, and in the air. It is concerned with the approach to combat; the disposition of troops and other personalities; the use made of various arms, ships, or ...
Tacuarembo: city, north-central Uruguay. The Haedo Mountains dominate the adjoining area. Orchids and hardwoods, including quebracho, algarrobo, urunday, and guayabo, grow there. Founded in 1831 by Bernabe Rivera, it was first called Villa de San Fructuoso; later, it adopted the Guarani ...
Tadjoura, Gulf of: gulf indenting the coastline of Djibouti, eastern Africa, located at the extreme western end of the Gulf of Aden. It provides some shelter for the port of Djibouti on the southeastern shore of the gulf. The gulf is 35 miles ...
Tadoba National Park: national park in Maharashtra state, western India. Extending over an area of 45 square miles (117 square km), the park consists of dense forests of sal (Shorea), margosa, mahua, and mango, interspersed with lakes and plains; stretches of bamboo thickets ...
tadpole: aquatic larval stage of frogs and toads. Compared with the larvae of salamanders, tadpoles have short, oval bodies, with broad tails, small mouths, and no external gills. The internal gills are concealed by a covering known as an operculum.
tadpole shrimp: (order Notostraca), any member of a small group of crustaceans (class Branchiopoda), composed of the genera Triops and Lepidurus. The approximately 15 known species are strictly freshwater forms, inhabiting lakes, ponds, and temporary pools, chiefly in Europe and North America. ...
tae kwon do: (Korean: "art of kicking and punching") Korean art of unarmed combat that is based on the earlier form of Korean self-defense known as tae kyon and on karate. The name tae kwon do was officially adopted for this martial art ...
Taedong River: river, southern North Korea, rising in the Nangnim Mountains in Hamgyong-nam do (province). It flows 273 miles (439 km) southwestward to enter Korea Bay, an arm of the Yellow Sea, at Namp'o. With its tributaries it forms a drainage basin ...
Taegu: city and provincial capital, Kyongsang-puk do (province), southeastern South Korea. Taegu is Korea's third largest city and has the status of a special city, with administrative status equal to that of a province. It lies east of the confluence of ...
Taejon: city and provincial capital, Ch'ungch'ong-nam do (province), southeastern South Korea. Taejon has the status of a special city, with administrative status equal to that of a province. Until the end of the Yi dynasty (1392-1910) it was a poor village ...
tael: a Chinese unit of weight that, when applied to silver, was long used as a unit of currency. Most taels were equivalent to 1.3 ounces of silver.
Taenia: genus of tapeworms parasitic in mammals. See tapeworm.
taeniodont: any member of an extinct order (Taeniodonta) of mammals that lived in North America throughout the Paleocene and into the middle Eocene Epoch (66.4 to 43 million years ago). The taeniodonts may have been related to early edentates (insect-eating mammals) ...
Taeuber, Conrad; and Barnes Taeuber, Irene: American demographers, statisticians, and social scientists whose scholarly work helped found the science of demography and made them authorities on population movements in the United States.
Taewon-gun: father of the Korean king Kojong.
Taff Vale case: (1900-01), in Great Britain, the successful trial of a suit brought by the Taff Vale Railway Company against the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants (ASRS) in which the courts held that a union could be sued for damages caused by ...
taffeta: fine, crisp plain-woven fabric with a faint weft, or filling-way, rib due to the greater number of warp threads than filling threads. It frequently has a lustrous surface. There are two distinct types of silk taffeta: yarn-dyed and piece-dyed. Yarn-dyed ...
taffy: flavoured syrup candy of Europe and the Americas that is cooked and then rigorously worked during cooling into a hard, chewy, glossy mass. Although the great 19th-century demand for taffy gave way in the mid-20th century to the popularity of ...
Tafilalt: largest Saharan oasis of Morocco, in the southeastern part of the country. The oasis comprises the fortified villages of Erfoud, Arab Sebbah du Ziz, Rissani, Seffalat, Aoufous, and Jorf, together with palm groves stretching 30 miles (50 km) along the ...
tafsir: the science of explanation of the Qur'an, the sacred scripture of Islam, or of Qur'anic commentary. So long as Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam, was alive, no other authority for interpretations of the Qur'anic revelations was recognized by Muslims. Upon ...
Taft, Helen: American first lady (1909-13), the wife of William Howard Taft, 27th U.S. president and 10th chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Taft, Lorado: American sculptor of portrait busts and monumental, allegorical works. He was also an influential teacher and writer.
Taft, Robert A.: Republican leader in the U.S. Senate for 14 years (1939-53) whose espousal of traditional conservatism won him the sobriquet "Mr. Republican"; his failure to receive the presidential nomination in 1948 and 1952 was indicative of the defeat of isolationism by ...
Taft, William Howard: 27th president of the United States (1909-13) and 10th chief justice of the United States (1921-30). As the choice of President Theodore Roosevelt to succeed him and carry on the progressive Republican agenda, Taft as president alienated the progressives-and later ...
Taft-Hartley Act: (1947), in U.S. history, law-enacted over the veto of Pres. Harry S. Truman-amending much of the pro-union Wagner Act of 1935. A variety of factors, including the fear of Communist infiltration of labour unions, the tremendous growth in both membership ...
tag: children's game in which, in its simplest form, the player who is "it" chases the other players, trying to touch one of them, thereby making that person "it." The game is known by many names, such as
Tagalog: largest cultural-linguistic group in the Philippines. They form the dominant population in the city of Manila; in all provinces bordering Manila Bay except Pampanga; in Nueva Ecija to the north; and in Batangas, Laguna, Marinduque, Mindoro, and Quezon to the ...
Tagalog language: member of the Central Philippine branch of the Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian) language family and the base for Pilipino, an official language of the Philippines, together with English. It is most closely related to Bicol and the Bisayan (Visayan) languages-Cebuano, Hiligaynon (Ilongo), ...
Taganrog: city and seaport, Rostov oblast (province), southwestern Russia. It lies on the northern coast of Taganrog Gulf of the Sea of Azov. Founded as a fortress and naval base in 1698 by Peter I the Great, Taganrog developed in the ...
Tagawa: city, Fukuoka ken (prefecture), Kyushu, Japan, on the upper Onga River. It was a farm village until the systematic exploitation of nearby coalfields began after 1900. Tagawa was the largest mining town in the Chikuho coalfield region until 1970, when ...
Tagaytay: city, southwestern Luzon, Philippines. It is located on Tagaytay Ridge at about 2,000 feet (600 m) above sea level, on the northern flank of Mount Taal. The city is a weekend retreat, popular for its cool climate and outstanding view ...
Tagbilaran: city on Bohol Island, in the Bohol (Mindanao) Sea, Philippines. Tagbilaran lies along the Bohol Strait and is sheltered by Panglao Island. It is a principal port of the area, with warehouses and distributory outlets, regular interisland service to Cebu ...
Tagelied: (from Middle High German Tageliet, "day song"), a medieval German dawn song, or song of lament by lovers parting at dawn. The Tagelied is similar to the Provencal alba and may have been derived from it. The most notable composer ...
Taggard, Genevieve: American poet who, though best remembered for her biography of Emily Dickinson, was much admired for her lyric verse that deftly and passionately mingles intellectual, personal, social, and aesthetic concerns.
Taginae, Battle of: (June or July 552), decisive engagement fought near what is now the town of Gualdo Tadino, Italy. In the battle the Byzantine general Narses defeated the main body of the Goths, who were led by their Christian king, Totila.
Taglioni, Filippo: Italian dancer and choreographer who developed the Romantic style of ballets.
Taglioni, Marie: Italian ballet dancer whose fragile, delicate dancing typified the early 19th-century Romantic style.