city, seat (1880) of Uintah county, northeastern Utah, U.S. The city lies along Ashley Creek, a small tributary of Green River, and is located 180 miles (290 km) east-southeast of Salt Lake City, at an elevation of 5,322 feet (1,622 ...
fall that bridges the Merced River about 4 miles (6 km) above its confluence with Tenaya Creek in Yosemite National Park, east-central California, U.S. It is one of the park's smaller falls (317 feet [97 metres]) and may be seen ...
the artificial exposure of plants (or seeds) to low temperatures in order to stimulate flowering or to enhance seed production. By satisfying the cold requirement of many temperate-zone plants, flowering can be induced to occur earlier than normal or in ...
handmade Caucasian floor covering that was formerly termed a sileh. It is usually woven in two pieces joined at the middle, with a design composed of squarish compartments, usually in horizonal rows of two per panel. Within ...
linguistic explanation of the apparent exceptions to Grimm's law (q.v.), which first demonstrated the significant role that accent (stress) played in linguistic change in the Germanic languages. It provided further evidence for the important claim of 19th-century linguists that phonetic ...
French landscape and marine painter whose finest works, the series of 15 "Ports of France" (1754-65; Louvre), constitute a remarkable record of 18th-century life.
method for producing synthetic rubies and sapphires. Originally developed (1902) by a French chemist, Auguste Verneuil, the process produces a boule (a mass of alumina with the same physical and chemical characteristics as corundum) from finely ground alumina (Al2O3) by ...
instrument for making very accurate linear measurements introduced in 1631 by Pierre Vernier of France. It utilizes two graduated scales: a main scale similar to that on a ruler and an especially graduated auxiliary scale, the vernier, that slides parallel ...
French mathematician and government official who is best remembered for his invention of the vernier caliper, an instrument for making accurate linear measurements. Taught by his scientist-father, Claude Vernier, he developed an early interest in measuring instruments. During his adult ...
lustrous lacquer substitute widely used in the 18th century to decorate furniture and such personal articles as brise fans and snuffboxes. The process of adding bronze or gold powder to green varnish was perfected by the Martin family (q.v.), hence ...
city, southern British Columbia, Canada. It lies in Okanagan Lake country, 274 miles (441 km) northeast of Vancouver. Pioneers called the early settlement Priest's Valley owing to a missionary outpost maintained there by Paul Durieu. It was also known as ...
commercial centre of Greek Macedonia and capital of the nomos (department) of Imathia, Greece. It lies on a plateau at the western edge of the Thessaloniki (Salonika) plain, at the eastern foot of the Vermion Mountains north of the Aliakmon ...
city, episcopal see, and capital of Verona provincia, Veneto regione, northern Italy. It lies at the foot of the Lessini Mountains, 65 miles (105 km) west of Venice, and is half-encircled by the Adige River.
(Oct. 20-Dec. 14, 1822), the last of the meetings held by the European powers in accordance with the terms of the Quadruple Alliance (1815) between Russia, Prussia, Austria, and Great Britain. Held at Verona, the congress was also the last ...
one of the major painters of the 16th-century Venetian school. His works usually are huge, vastly peopled canvases depicting allegorical, biblical, or historical subjects in splendid colour and set in a framework of classical architecture. A master of the use ...
renowned legendary woman who, moved by the sight of Christ carrying his cross to Golgotha, gave him her kerchief to wipe his brow, after which he handed it back imprinted with the image of his face. This account is not ...
suspension bridge spanning New York Harbor from Brooklyn to Staten Island, built by Othmar H. Ammann from 1959 to 1964. Its 4,260-foot (1,298-metre) main span was, until the completion of the Humber Bridge in 1981, the longest in the world. ...
(French: "Glomyized glass"), glass engraved on the back that has been covered by unfired painting or, usually, gold or silver leaf. The method owes its name to Jean-Baptiste Glomy (d. 1786), a French picture framer who used the process in ...
Roman magistrate notorious for his misgovernment of Sicily. His trial pointed up the extent of official corruption in the Roman provinces during the Late Republic. The son of an undistinguished senator, he became quaestor to the consul Gnaeus Carbo, but, ...
zoologist and naturalist who, as curator of zoology at the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University, developed one of the largest, most valuable zoological collections in the United States.
Roman freedman who became a learned scholar and grammarian and the most famous teacher of his day. Verrius Flaccus introduced the principle of competition among his pupils and awarded old books, beautiful or rare, as prizes. Augustus entrusted the education ...
15th-century Florentine sculptor and painter and the teacher of Leonardo da Vinci. His equestrian statue of Bartolomeo Colleoni, erected in Venice in 1496, is particularly important.
genus of lichens of the family Verrucariaceae, often found as a black crust covering seashore rocks. Along with the effects of weathering, Verrucaria helps break down limestone rocks by secreting acids that dissolve the cement holding together the rock particles. ...
(French: "society verse"), light poetry written with particular wit and polish and intended for a limited, sophisticated audience. It has flourished in cultured societies, particularly in court circles and literary salons, from the time of the Greek poet Anacreon (6th ...
(French: "free verse"), 19th-century poetic innovation that liberated French poetry from its traditional prosodic rules. In vers libre, the basic metrical unit is the phrase rather than a line of a fixed number of syllables, as was traditional in French ...
capital city of Yvelines departement, Paris region, northern France, 14 mi (22 km) southwest of Paris. The city developed around the 17th-century palace built by Louis XIV, the principal residence of the kings of France and the seat of the ...
former French royal residence and centre of government, now a national landmark. It is located in the city of Versailles, Yvelines departement, Ile-de-France region, northern France, 10 miles (16 km) west-southwest of Paris. As ...
peace document signed at the end of World War I by the Allied and Associated Powers and by Germany in the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles, France, on June 28, 1919; it took force on Jan. 10, ...
a single line of metrical composition; more broadly, the metrical composition itself or the poetic technique of a particular poem. Although verse is sometimes used as a synonym for poetry, it is usually understood to be metrical composition that ranks ...
a short verse, especially from a sacred book, such as those found in the Song of Solomon and the Psalms, or a stanza form modeled on such biblical verse. The stanza form is characterized by long lines and powerful, surging ...
in vertebrate animals, the flexible column extending from neck to tail, made of a series of bones, the vertebrae. The major function of the vertebral column is protection of the spinal cord; it also provides stiffening for the body and ...
any animal of the subphylum Vertebrata, the predominant subphylum of the phylum Chordata. They have backbones, from which they derive their name. The vertebrates are also characterized by a muscular system consisting pimarily of bilaterally paired masses and a central ...
sensation that a person's surroundings are rotating or that he himself is revolving. Usually the state produces dizziness, mental bewilderment, and confusion. If the sensation is intense enough, the person may become nauseated and vomit.
one of the 30 soil groups in the classification system of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Vertisols are characterized by a clay-size-particle content of 30 percent or more by mass in all horizons (layers) of the upper half-metre of ...
one of the 12 soil orders in the U.S. Soil Taxonomy. Vertisols are clay-rich soils that undergo significant vertical cracking during the dry seasons. Typically forming under grassland vegetation in basin or rolling hill landscapes, they are best suited for ...
Soviet motion-picture director whose kino-glaz ("film-eye") theory-that the camera is an instrument, much like the human eye, that is best used to explore the actual happenings of real life-had an international impact on the development of documentaries and cinema realism ...
Roman emperor jointly (161-169) with Marcus Aurelius. Though he enjoyed equal constitutional status and powers, he did not have equal authority, nor did he seem capable of bearing his share of the responsibilities.
Dutch poet, scholar, and literary historian who played an important role in the literary life of The Netherlands in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
radio telescope system situated on the plains of San Agustin near Socorro, New Mexico, U.S. The VLA went into operation in 1980 and is the most powerful radio telescope in the world. It is operated by the National Radio Astronomy ...
