(Translated by https://www.hiragana.jp/)
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  • Åland Islands (islands, Finland)
    archipelago constituting Åland (Ahvenanmaa) autonomous territory, southwestern Finland. The islands lie at the entrance to the Gulf of Bothnia, 25 miles (40 km) east of the Swedish coast, at the eastern edge of the Åland Sea. The archipelago has a land area of 599 square miles (1,551 square km) and consists of about 35 inhabited islands, 6,500 uninhabited islands, ...
  • Aland, Kurt (German biblical scholar)
    ...of gospels as a whole, formally and theologically, with patterns or cycles to be investigated. It may be significant that the latest and best regarded Greek synopsis is that of the German scholar Kurt Aland, Synopsis Quattuor Evangeliorum (1964; Synopsis of the Four Gospels, 1972), which includes the Gospel According to John and, as an appendix, the Gospel of Thomas, as......
  • Åland Skärgård (islands, Finland)
    archipelago constituting Åland (Ahvenanmaa) autonomous territory, southwestern Finland. The islands lie at the entrance to the Gulf of Bothnia, 25 miles (40 km) east of the Swedish coast, at the eastern edge of the Åland Sea. The archipelago has a land area of 599 square miles (1,551 square km) and consists of about 35 inhabited islands, 6,500 uninhabited islands, ...
  • Alang language
    language spoken chiefly in the central highlands of south-central Vietnam near Kon Tum. The number of speakers in Vietnam is estimated at some 10,000. Halang is a member of the North Bahnaric subbranch of the Mon-Khmer language family, which is a part of the Austroasiatic stock. Other North Bahnaric languages spoken in the region are Sedang, Rengao, Kayong, Monom, and Jeh. ...
  • alang-alang (plant)
    one of about seven species of perennials constituting the genus Imperata (family Poaceae), native to temperate and tropical regions of the Old World. Cogon grass is a serious weed in cultivated areas of South Africa and Australia. Satintail (I. brevifolia), a tall grass native to western North America, has a thin, silvery flower cluster. Each spikelet bears many long, silky hairs....
  • Alani (ancient people)
    an ancient nomadic pastoral people that occupied the steppe region northeast of the Black Sea. The Alani were first mentioned in Roman literature in the 1st century ad and were described later as a warlike people that specialized in horse breeding. They frequently raided the Parthian empire and the Caucasian provinces of the Roman Empire. About ad 370, however, they wer...
  • alanine (chemical compound)
    either of two amino acids, one of which (αあるふぁ-alanine) is a constituent of proteins. An especially rich source of αあるふぁ-alanine is silk fibroin, from which the amino acid was first isolated in 1879. Alanine is one of several so-called nonessential amino acids for birds and mammals; i.e., they can synthesize it from pyruvic acid (formed in the breakdown of carbohydrates...
  • Alans (ancient people)
    an ancient nomadic pastoral people that occupied the steppe region northeast of the Black Sea. The Alani were first mentioned in Roman literature in the 1st century ad and were described later as a warlike people that specialized in horse breeding. They frequently raided the Parthian empire and the Caucasian provinces of the Roman Empire. About ad 370, however, they wer...
  • Alanus de Insulis (French theologian)
    theologian and poet so celebrated for his varied learning that he was known as “the universal doctor.”...
  • Alaotra, Lake (lake, Madagascar)
    There are many lakes of volcanic origin on the island, such as Lake Itasy. Alaotra is the last surviving lake of the eastern slope. Lake Tsimanampetsotsa, near the coast south of Toliara (formerly Tuléar), is a large body of saline water that has no outlet....
  • alap (Indian music)
    in the art musics of South Asia, improvised melody structures that reveal the musical characteristics of a raga. Variant forms of the word—alap in northern Indian music and alapana in Carnatic music (where the term ragam improvisation is als...
  • alapa (Indian music)
    in the art musics of South Asia, improvised melody structures that reveal the musical characteristics of a raga. Variant forms of the word—alap in northern Indian music and alapana in Carnatic music (where the term ragam improvisation is als...
  • Alapaevsk (Russia)
    city, Sverdlovsk oblast (province), west-central Russia, on the Neyva River. It is one of the oldest centres of the iron and steel industry in the Urals (an ironworks was established there in 1704). It also has machine-tool, timbering, and metalworking industries. Pop. (2006 est.) 42,920....
  • alapana (Indian music)
    in the art musics of South Asia, improvised melody structures that reveal the musical characteristics of a raga. Variant forms of the word—alap in northern Indian music and alapana in Carnatic music (where the term ragam improvisation is als...
  • Alapayevsk (Russia)
    city, Sverdlovsk oblast (province), west-central Russia, on the Neyva River. It is one of the oldest centres of the iron and steel industry in the Urals (an ironworks was established there in 1704). It also has machine-tool, timbering, and metalworking industries. Pop. (2006 est.) 42,920....
  • Alappuzha (India)
    city, southern Kerala state, southwestern India. It lies on a narrow land spit between the Arabian Sea and Vembanad Lake, south of Kochi (formerly Cochin). Alleppey’s port was opened to foreign trade by the British in the late 18th century to end the commercial supremacy of the Dutch trading post at Porakad, 10 miles (16 km) away. The city’s econ...
  • Alar (dimethylamino)
    Daminozide, also known as Alar, is a plant growth regulator used to improve the appearance and shelf life of apples. Because of its carcinogenicity in animals (Table 1), concerns have been raised that daminozide may produce tumours in children who consume apples. As a result, the use of daminozide has greatly decreased....
  • Alara (Nubian prince)
    ...to Napata, where they may have Egyptianized the native princes of Cush, inspiring them—from about 750—to conquer a degenerate Egypt. The descendants of the first known Cushite prince, Alara (c. 790 bc), established themselves as the 25th dynasty of Egypt; they are remembered for being largely responsible for restoring to Egypt its ancient customs and beliefs. ...
  • Alarcón, Fabián (president of Ecuador)
    ...of Abdala Bucaram. In February 1997 the National Congress, which had accused Bucaram of widespread corruption and nepotism, declared him mentally unfit to govern. The president of the Congress, Fabián Alarcón, was chosen by that body to serve as interim president. This move, however, was challenged by Arteaga, who claimed that the Ecuadoran constitution granted her the right......
  • Alarcón y Ariza, Pedro Antonio de (Spanish writer)
    writer remembered for his novel El sombrero de tres picos (1874; The Three-Cornered Hat)....
  • Alarcón y Mendoza, Juan Ruiz de (Spanish dramatist)
    Mexican-born Spanish dramatist of the colonial era who was the principal dramatist of early 17th-century Spain after Lope de Vega and Tirso de Molina....
  • Alarcos, Battle of (European history)
    (July 18, 1195), celebrated Almohad victory in Muslim Spain over the forces of King Alfonso VIII of Castile. In 1190 the Almohad caliph Abū Yūsuf Yaʿqūb forced an armistice on the Christian kings of Castile and Leon, after repulsing their attacks on Muslim possessions in Spain. At the expiration of the truce (c. 1...
  • Alaric (leader of Visigoths)
    chief of the Visigoths from 395 and leader of the army that sacked Rome in August 410, an event that symbolized the fall of the Western Roman Empire....
  • Alaric, Breviary of (Germanic law)
    ...Salic Law of Clovis, c. 507–511; Law of Gundobad, c. 501–515), and occasionally had summaries of Roman rights drawn up for the Gallo-Roman population (Papian Code of Gundobad; Breviary of Alaric). By the 9th century this principle of legal personality, under which each person was judged according to the law applying to his status group, was replaced by a territoriall...
  • Alaric II (king of Visigoths)
    king of the Visigoths, who succeeded his father Euric on Dec. 28, 484. He was married to Theodegotha, daughter of Theodoric, the Ostrogothic king of Italy....
  • alarm pheromone
    ...the complex activities of a colony. Some ants lay scent pheromones along a trail leading to a food source so that other members of the colony can find the food. Pheromones are also used to signal the presence of danger. A wounded minnow has been shown to release a chemical from specialized epidermal cells that elicits a dispersal response from the school. Pheromones play a role in......
  • alarm signal (zoology)
    in zoology, a ritualized means of communicating a danger or threat among the members of an animal group. In many cases the signal is visual or vocal, but some animals—ants, bees, and certain fishes, for example—secrete chemical substances. Alarm communications frequently cross species boundaries. The hawking alarm calls of many small birds are similar and will cause most other birds ...
  • alarm substance (fish secretion)
    ...along a trail leading to a food source so that other members of the colony can find the food. Pheromones are also used to signal the presence of danger. A wounded minnow has been shown to release a chemical from specialized epidermal cells that elicits a dispersal response from the school. Pheromones play a role in sexual attraction and copulatory behaviour, and they have been shown to......
  • Alarodioi (people)
    member of a people with an ancient culture who originally lived in the region known as Armenia, which comprised what is now northeastern Turkey and the Republic of Armenia. Although some remain in Turkey, more than three million Armenians live in the republic; large numbers also live in Azerbaijan, Georgia, and other areas...
  • Alarum Against Usurers, An (work by Lodge)
    ...Oxford, and he studied law at Lincoln’s Inn, London, in 1578. Lodge’s earliest work was an anonymous pamphlet (c. 1579) in reply to Stephen Gosson’s attack on stage plays. His next work, An Alarum Against Usurers (1584), exposed the ways in which moneylenders lured young heirs into extravagance and debt. He then engaged in varied literary activity for a number...
  • alary muscle (anatomy)
    ...muscular walls. The walls are perforated by pairs of lateral openings (ostia) that allow blood to flow into the heart from a large surrounding sinus, the pericardium. The heart may be suspended by alary muscles, contraction of which expands the heart and increases blood flow into it. The direction of flow is controlled by valves arranged in front of the in-current ostia....
  • Alas, Leopoldo (Spanish writer)
    novelist, journalist, and the most influential literary critic in late 19th-century Spain. His biting and often-bellicose articles, sometimes called paliques (“chitchat”), and his advocacy of liberalism, anticlericalism, and literary naturalism not only made him Spain’s most feared critical voice but also created many ...
  • Alas y Ureña, Leopoldo (Spanish writer)
    novelist, journalist, and the most influential literary critic in late 19th-century Spain. His biting and often-bellicose articles, sometimes called paliques (“chitchat”), and his advocacy of liberalism, anticlericalism, and literary naturalism not only made him Spain’s most feared critical voice but also created many ...
  • Alaşehir (Turkey)
    town, western Turkey. It lies in the Kuzu River valley, at the foot of the Boz Mountain. Founded about 150 bc by a king of Pergamum, it became an important town of the Byzantine Empire. It was not taken by the Ottomans until after all other cities of Asia Minor had surrendered to Ottoman rule. Conquered by Timur (Tamerlane) in 1402, it was recaptured under the Otto...
  • Alash Orda (political party, Kazakstan)
    With the collapse of tsarist rule, the Westernized Kazak elite formed a party, the Alash Orda, as a vehicle through which they could express their aspirations for regional autonomy. Having found during the Russian Civil War that the anticommunist “Whites” were implacably opposed to their aspirations, the Kazaks cast in their lot with the “Reds.” After the war the Kazaks...
  • Alashan Gaoyuan (desert region, China)
    southernmost portion of the Gobi (desert), occupying about 400,000 square miles (1,000,000 square km) in north-central China. Covering the western portions of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and the northern part of Gansu province, it is bounded by the Huang He (Yellow River) and Helan Mountains on ...
  • Alaska (state, United States)
    constituent state of the United States of America. It lies at the extreme northwest of the North American continent and is the largest peninsula in the Western Hemisphere. Its 591,004 square miles (1,530,700 square km) include some 15,000 square miles (38,800 square km) of fjords and inlets, and its three faces to the sea have about 34,000 miles (54,400 km) of indented tidal coastline and 6,600 to...
  • Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines (university, Alaska, United States)
    system of public land-, sea-, and space-grant universities in Alaska, U.S., with campuses (regional university centres) in Fairbanks (main campus), Anchorage, and Juneau (known as the University of Alaska Southeast). The university traces its origins to 1917, two years after the U.S. Congress set aside land for the creatio...
  • Alaska blackfish (fish)
    (species Dallia pectoralis), Arctic freshwater fish, assigned by most authorities to the family Umbridae but by others to the separate family Dalliidae. The fish is about 20 cm (8 inches) long, with a dark, streamlined body, protruding lower jaw, and two large opposed fins near the tail. Locally important as a food fish, it lives in shallow streams and ponds of North America and Siberia. Al...
  • Alaska cedar (plant)
    The Nootka cypress, yellow cypress, or Alaska cedar (C. nootkatensis), also called yellow cedar, canoe cedar, Sitka cypress, and Alaska cypress, is a valuable timber tree of northwestern North America. Its pale-yellow, hard wood is used for boats, furniture, and paneling. Some varieties are cultivated as ornamental shrubs, although forest trees may be more than 35 metres (115 feet)......
  • Alaska Current (current, Gulf of Alaska)
    surface oceanic current, a branch of the West Wind Drift that forms a counterclockwise gyre in the Gulf of Alaska. In contrast to typical sub-Arctic Pacific water, Alaska Current water is characterized by temperatures above 39° F (4° C) and surface salinities below 32.6 parts per thousand....
  • Alaska cypress (plant)
    The Nootka cypress, yellow cypress, or Alaska cedar (C. nootkatensis), also called yellow cedar, canoe cedar, Sitka cypress, and Alaska cypress, is a valuable timber tree of northwestern North America. Its pale-yellow, hard wood is used for boats, furniture, and paneling. Some varieties are cultivated as ornamental shrubs, although forest trees may be more than 35 metres (115 feet)......
  • Alaska dab (fish)
    Other species include the yellowtail flounder, or rusty dab (L. ferruginea), a reddish brown western Atlantic fish with rust-coloured spots and a yellow tail; the yellowfin sole, or Alaska dab (L. aspera), a brownish northern Pacific flatfish; and the longhead dab (L. proboscidea), a light-spotted, brownish northern Pacific fish with yellow on the edges of its body....
  • Alaska earthquake of 1964
    earthquake that occurred in south-central Alaska on March 27, 1964, with a Richter scale magnitude of 9.2. It released at least twice as much energy as the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 and was felt on land over an area of almost 502,000 square miles (1,300,000 square km). The death toll was only 131 because of the low density of the stat...
  • Alaska, flag of (United States state flag)
    ...
  • Alaska, Gulf of (gulf, United States)
    broad inlet of the North Pacific on the south coast of Alaska, U.S. Bounded by the Alaska Peninsula and Kodiak Island (west) and Cape Spencer (east), it has a surface area of 592,000 square miles (1,533,000 square km). The coast is deeply indented by fjords and other inlets, including Cook Inlet and Prince William Sound (o...
  • Alaska Highway (highway, North America)
    road (1,523 miles [2,451 km] long) through the Yukon, connecting Dawson Creek, B.C., with Fairbanks, Alaska. It was previously called the Alaskan International Highway, the Alaska Military Highway, and the Alcan (Alaska-Canadian) Highway. It was constructed by U.S. Army engineers (March-November 1942) at a cost of $135 million as an emergency war measure to provide an overland military supply rout...
  • Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge (wildlife refuge, Alaska, United States)
    ...rainfall, and persistent fog, the Aleutians are practically devoid of trees but are covered with a luxuriant growth of grasses, sedges, and many flowering plants. The Aleutian Islands unit of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge covers 4,250 square miles (11,000 square km) and extends between Unimak (east) and Attu (west) islands. The Aleutians provide a nesting habitat for some 15 to.....
  • Alaska Military Highway (highway, North America)
    road (1,523 miles [2,451 km] long) through the Yukon, connecting Dawson Creek, B.C., with Fairbanks, Alaska. It was previously called the Alaskan International Highway, the Alaska Military Highway, and the Alcan (Alaska-Canadian) Highway. It was constructed by U.S. Army engineers (March-November 1942) at a cost of $135 million as an emergency war measure to provide an overland military supply rout...
  • Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (United States [1971])
    ...from protest through land claims and other legal actions, to prevent or ameliorate the effects of such development. Many of their efforts have proven successful, most notably those resulting in the Alaskan Native Claim Settlement Act (U.S., 1971) and associated legislation and the creation of Nunavut (Canada, 1999), a province with a predominantly aboriginal government. See also Native.....
  • Alaska paper birch (plant)
    ...leaves, about six centimetres long; the mountain paper birch (variety cordifolia), with white bark, is a small, sometimes shrubby tree of Canada and the eastern and midwestern U.S. In the Alaska paper birch (variety humilis) the nearly triangular leaves are about four centimetres long, the bark white to red brown; the Kenai birch (variety kenaica), found in Alaska from......
  • Alaska Peninsula (peninsula, Alaska, United States)
    stretch of land extending southwest from mainland Alaska, U.S. It spreads for 500 miles (800 km) between the Pacific Ocean (southeast) and Bristol Bay, an arm of the Bering Sea. The volcanic Aleutian Range runs along its entire length; the majestic Pavlof Volcano, near the peninsula’s southwestern...
  • Alaska Purchase (United States history)
    (1867), acquisition by the United States from Russia of 586,412 square miles (1,518,800 square km) of land at the northwestern tip of the North American continent....
  • Alaska Railroad (railway, North America)
    ...necessity of maintaining a relatively low gradient and the subsequent location of the roadbed in ice-rich lowlands that are underlain with perennially frozen ground. The Trans-Siberian Railroad, the Alaska Railroad, and some Canadian railroads in the north are locally underlain by permafrost with considerable ground ice. As the large masses of ice melt each summer, constant maintenance is......
  • Alaska Range (mountains, Alaska, United States)
    segment of the Pacific mountain system that extends generally northward and eastward in an arc for about 400 miles (650 km) from the Aleutian Range to the Yukon boundary in southern Alaska, U.S. Mount McKinley, which reaches an elevation of 20,320 feet (6,194 metres), near the centre of the range, in Denali Nation...
  • Alaska Rural Rehabilitation Corporation (United States government organization)
    ...as a station on the Matanuska branch of the Alaska Railroad. In 1935, during the Great Depression, the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt established Palmer as the seat of the Alaska Rural Rehabilitation Corporation; it became a supply centre for some 200 farm families who were relocated to Alaska from northern Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Although many farms failed......
  • Alaska Southeast, University of (university, Alaska, United States)
    system of public land-, sea-, and space-grant universities in Alaska, U.S., with campuses (regional university centres) in Fairbanks (main campus), Anchorage, and Juneau (known as the University of Alaska Southeast). The university traces its origins to 1917, two years after the U.S. Congress set aside land for the creatio...
  • Alaska, University of (university, Alaska, United States)
    system of public land-, sea-, and space-grant universities in Alaska, U.S., with campuses (regional university centres) in Fairbanks (main campus), Anchorage, and Juneau (known as the University of Alaska Southeast). The university traces its origins to 1917, two years after the U.S. Congress set aside land for the creatio...
  • Alaskan brown bear (mammal)
    (Ursus arctos middendorffi), variety of grizzly bear found on Kodiak Island, off the coast of Alaska. It is the largest of living land carnivores. See grizzly bear....
  • Alaskan husky (dog)
    ...common to the most northern reaches of the Northern Hemisphere —such as Eskimo dogs, Siberian huskies, Samoyeds, and Alaskan malamutes—are sometimes used, most racing sled dogs are Alaskan huskies, a mixed breed which originated perhaps 10,000 years ago. While not an officially recognized breed, Alaskan huskies are known for their tough, durable feet, a coat that can withstand......
  • Alaskan International Highway (highway, North America)
    road (1,523 miles [2,451 km] long) through the Yukon, connecting Dawson Creek, B.C., with Fairbanks, Alaska. It was previously called the Alaskan International Highway, the Alaska Military Highway, and the Alcan (Alaska-Canadian) Highway. It was constructed by U.S. Army engineers (March-November 1942) at a cost of $135 million as an emergency war measure to provide an overland military supply rout...
  • Alaskan king crab (crustacean)
    (Paralithodes camtschaticus), marine crustacean of the order Decapoda, class Malacostraca. This edible crab is found in the shallow waters off Japan, along the coast of Alaska, and in the Bering Sea. The king crab is one of the largest crabs, weighing 5 kg (11 pounds) or more. Its size and tasty flesh make it a valued food, and large numbers are commercially fished each year....
  • Alaskan Malamute (breed of dog)
    sled dog developed by the Malemiut, an Eskimo (Inupiat) group from which it takes its name. The Alaskan Malamute is a strongly built dog, with a broad head, erect ears, and a plumelike tail carried over its back. Its thick coat is usually gray and white or black and white, the colours frequently forming a caplike or masklike marking on the head. The Alaskan Malamute stands about...
  • Alaskan Mountains (mountains, United States)
    three principal mountain groups—the Brooks Range, Alaska Range, and Aleutian Range—found in Alaska....
  • Alastalon salissa (work by Kilpi)
    Beginning as an “aesthetic” novelist, Kilpi turned to descriptions of 19th-century Finnish island life. In his important novel Alastalon salissa (1933; “In the Parlour at Alastalo”), a work of more than 900 pages, he used interior monologues, long flashback episodes, and exact, detailed description to give an account of the events in a six-hour period. In this......
  • Alastor (literary figure)
    any of certain avenging deities or spirits, especially in Greek antiquity. The term is associated with Nemesis, the goddess of divine retribution who signified the gods’ disapproval of human presumption. Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem Alastor; or, The Spirit of Solitude (1816) was a visionary work in which he warned idealis...
  • Alastor; or The Spirit of Solitude (poem by Shelley)
    Settling near Windsor Great Park in 1815, Shelley read the classics with Hogg and another friend, Thomas Love Peacock. He also wrote Alastor; or The Spirit of Solitude, a blank-verse poem, published with shorter poems in 1816, that warns idealists (like Shelley himself) not to abandon “sweet human love” and social improvement for the vain pursuit of evanescent dreams. By......
  • alastrim (pathology)
    Smallpox is caused by infection with variola major, a virus of the family Poxviridae. (A less-virulent form of smallpox, called alastrim, is caused by a closely related virus known as variola minor.) There are no natural animal carriers or natural propagation of variola outside the human body. The disease is thought by some scholars to have arisen among settled agricultural populations in......
  • Alatasanti (work by Gaudapada)
    ...part is an explanation of the Upaniṣad itself, the second part establishes the unreality of the world, the third part defends the oneness of reality, and the fourth part, called Alātaṣānti (“Extinction of the Burning Coal”), deals with the state of release from suffering. It is not accidental that Gauḍapāda used as the title....
  • alate (biology)
    The winged sexual forms, or alates, are produced at certain times during the year and swarm in mating flights to establish a new colony, which may actually be no more than a few hundred feet from the old colony. Actual copulation may occur either during flight or after landing on a surface. For most species of ants, it is not known whether a male will copulate with more than one female or if a......
  • Alateen (self-help organization)
    ...and, at best, the relapse-prevention technique of choice. AA has spawned allied but independent organizations, including Al-Anon, for spouses and other close relatives and friends of alcoholics, and Alateen, for their adolescent children. The aim of such related groups is to help the members learn how to be helpful and to forgive alcoholic relatives....
  • Alatri (Italy)
    town, Lazio (Latium) regione, central Italy. It lies in the Cosa River valley, at 1,647 feet (502 m) above sea level, just north of Frosinone city. Said to have been founded in 1830 bc as Alatrium (mentioned by the Greek geographer Strabo), it belonged to the confederation of the Hernici, an ancient people of Italy, and later passed under the dominion of Rom...
  • Alatrium (Italy)
    town, Lazio (Latium) regione, central Italy. It lies in the Cosa River valley, at 1,647 feet (502 m) above sea level, just north of Frosinone city. Said to have been founded in 1830 bc as Alatrium (mentioned by the Greek geographer Strabo), it belonged to the confederation of the Hernici, an ancient people of Italy, and later passed under the dominion of Rom...
  • Alauda arvensis (bird)
    ...of larks forage for insects and seeds on the ground. All species have high, thin, melodious voices; in courtship the male may sing in the sky or audibly clap his wings aloft. The male Old World skylark (Alauda arvensis) is particularly noted for his rich, sustained song. The species breeds across Europe and has been introduced into Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii, and Vancouver......
  • Ala’ud’din (sultan of Johore)
    sultan of the Malay kingdom of Johore from 1528. He is sometimes considered the cofounder of the kingdom with his father, Mahmud Shah, the last sultan of Malacca, who established Johore on the island of Bintang (southeast of Singapore) in 1512–13. Sometime after his father’s death (1528), Ala’ud’din moved his capital to Johore Lama. The Achinese sacke...
  • Alaudidae (bird)
    family name Alaudidae, any of about 75 species of a songbird family (order Passeriformes). Larks occur throughout the continental Old World; only the horned, or shore, lark (Eremophila alpestris) is native to the New World. The bill is quite variable: it may be small and narrowly conical or long and downward-curving; and the hind claw is long and sometimes straight. Plumage i...
  • Alaung Phra (king of Myanmar)
    king (1752–60) who unified Myanmar (Burma) and founded the Alaungpaya, or Konbaung, dynasty, which held power until the British annexed Upper (northern) Burma on Jan. 1, 1886. He also conquered the independent Mon kingdom of Pegu (in the Irrawaddy River delta)....
  • Alaungpaya (king of Myanmar)
    king (1752–60) who unified Myanmar (Burma) and founded the Alaungpaya, or Konbaung, dynasty, which held power until the British annexed Upper (northern) Burma on Jan. 1, 1886. He also conquered the independent Mon kingdom of Pegu (in the Irrawaddy River delta)....
  • Alaungpaya Dynasty (Myanmar dynasty)
    the last ruling dynasty (1752–1885) of Myanmar (Burma). The dynasty’s collapse in the face of British imperial might marked the end of Myanmar sovereignty for more than 60 years. (Some authorities limit the name Konbaung dynasty to the period beginning with King Bodawpaya in 1782 and continuing to 1885.) The Alaungpaya dynasty led Myanmar in an era of expansionism ...
  • Alaus oculatus (insect)
    The eyed elator (Alaus oculatus), a North American click beetle, grows to 45 mm (over 1 34 in.) long and has two large black-and-white eyelike spots on the prothorax, a region behind the head. The genus Pyrophorus, which occurs in the tropical areas of the Western Hemisphere, is luminescent, giving off......
  • Álava (province, Spain)
    provincia, northern Spain. Álava is the southernmost of the three Basque Country provincias of northern Spain and is located mainly on the southern slope of the Pyrenees Range. It is bounded by the Ebro River (southwest) and surrounds the enclaves of Treviño and Orduña belonging to Burgos and Vizcaya provincias, respectively. Álava has an area of 1...
  • Álava y Esquivel, Miguel Ricardo de (Spanish soldier and statesman)
    soldier in the Napoleonic Wars and statesman. Álava was an aide-de-camp to the Duke of Wellington and the Spanish commissary at the duke’s headquarters during the Peninsular War. On the restoration of Ferdinand VII to the throne of Spain, he lost favour because of his liberal ideas but was appointed ambassador to The Netherlands (1815–22). He was president o...
  • Alavi, Bozorg (Iranian author)
    one of the leading prose writers of 20th-century Persian literature....
  • ʿAlavī, Buzurg (Iranian author)
    one of the leading prose writers of 20th-century Persian literature....
  • ʿAlawī (Shīʿite sect)
    any member of a minority sect of Shīʿite Muslims living chiefly in Syria....
  • ʿAlawī dynasty (Moroccan dynasty)
    ...army spilled down the gap and seized Fès, the capital of the powerful religious brotherhood of Dila. Al-Rashīd proclaimed himself sultan and thus formally establishing the ʿAlawī dynasty. From Fès he proceeded to conquer the north, plundered and razed the Dila monastery, and seized control of Morocco’s Atlantic seaboard from its ruling marabouts.......
  • ʿAlawī Sayyid dynasty (Muslim dynasty)
    ...the mid-10th century a refugee from disturbances in Iraq, Aḥmad ibn ʿĪsā al-Muhājir, arrived in Hadhramaut, then under Ibāḍite domination, and founded the ʿAlawite (ʿAlawī) Sayyid house, which was instrumental in spreading the Shāfiʿite (Shāfiʿī) school of Islamic law to India, Indonesia, an...
  • ʿAlawite (Shīʿite sect)
    any member of a minority sect of Shīʿite Muslims living chiefly in Syria....
  • ʿAlawite dynasty (Moroccan dynasty)
    ...army spilled down the gap and seized Fès, the capital of the powerful religious brotherhood of Dila. Al-Rashīd proclaimed himself sultan and thus formally establishing the ʿAlawī dynasty. From Fès he proceeded to conquer the north, plundered and razed the Dila monastery, and seized control of Morocco’s Atlantic seaboard from its ruling marabouts.......
  • ʿAlawite Sayyid dynasty (Muslim dynasty)
    ...the mid-10th century a refugee from disturbances in Iraq, Aḥmad ibn ʿĪsā al-Muhājir, arrived in Hadhramaut, then under Ibāḍite domination, and founded the ʿAlawite (ʿAlawī) Sayyid house, which was instrumental in spreading the Shāfiʿite (Shāfiʿī) school of Islamic law to India, Indonesia, an...
  • ʿAlawīyah (Shīʿite sect)
    any member of a minority sect of Shīʿite Muslims living chiefly in Syria....
  • Alay Range (mountains, Central Asia)
    ...to the north by the Junggar (Dzungarian) Basin of northwestern China and the southern Kazakhstan plains and to the southeast by the Tarim (Talimu) Basin. To the southwest the Hisor (Gissar) and Alay ranges of Tajikistan extend into part of the Tien Shan, making the Alay, Surkhandarya, and Hisor valleys boundaries of the system, along with the Pamirs to the south. The Tien Shan also includes......
  • ālaya-vijñāna (Buddhist concept)
    (Sanskrit: “store of consciousness”), key concept of the Vijñānavāda (“Consciousness-affirming”) school of the Mahāyāna Buddhist tradition. Since that school maintains that no external reality exists, while retaining the position that knowledge, and therefore a knowable, exists, it assumes that knowledge itself is the object of consci...
  • alb (liturgical vestment)
    liturgical vestment worn in some services by Roman Catholic officiants, some Anglicans, and some Lutherans. A symbol of purity, it is a full-length, long-sleeved, usually white linen tunic secured at the waist by a cord or belt called a cincture. The equivalent vestment in the Eastern churches is the sticharion....
  • alba (music)
    in the music of the troubadours, the 11th- and 12th-century poet-musicians of southern France, a song of lament for lovers parting at dawn or of a watchman’s warning to lovers at dawn. A song of the latter type sometimes takes the form of a dialogue between a watchman and a lover. Some sources consider the alba an early form of an aubade, though unlike the alba an aubade ...
  • Alba (historical kingdom, Scotland)
    the kingdom formed by the union of the Picts and Scots under Kenneth I MacAlpin in 843. Their territory, ranging from modern Argyll and Bute to Caithness, across much of southern and central Scotland, was one of the few areas in the British Isles to withstand the invasions of the Vikings. The ancient link with Ireland (from which the Celtic Scots had emigrated) was broken as a ...
  • Alba (Italy)
    town, Piedmont regione, northwestern Italy. It lies along the Tanaro River southwest of Turin. It occupies the site of the Roman Alba Pompeia, which was probably founded by Pompeius Strabo (consul, 89 bc) when he constructed the road from Aquae Statiellae (Acqui Terme) to Augusta Taurinorum (Turin). The town became an episcopal see depende...
  • ALBA (Bahraini company)
    ...the gulf in developing manufacturing and commercial and financial services. The non-oil sector includes petrochemicals, ship repair, aluminum refining, and light manufacturing. The government-owned Aluminum Bahrain B.S.C. (Alba), one of the world’s largest aluminum smelters, and Bapco have been profitable, but this has provided less incentive for privatization. Bahrain has remained the m...
  • ALBA (international organization)
    ...were convicted for conspiring with the United States to subvert the revolution. The following year, Castro strengthened his alliance with Venezuelan Pres. Hugo Chávez by launching the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA; Alternativa Bolivariana para las Américas), a socialist initiative to promote regional commerce, through which Cuba provided health care......
  • Alba (county, Romania)
    judeţ (county), western Romania, occupying an area of 2,406 square miles (6,231 square km). The Western Carpathians rise above the settled areas in intermontane valleys. The county is drained westward by the Mureş River and its tributaries. Neolithic artifacts have been found at Alba Iulia (the county capital) and other sites in the judeţ. A C...
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