(Translated by https://www.hiragana.jp/)
Encyclopedia - Britannica Online Encyclopedia
The Wayback Machine - https://web.archive.org/web/20111019215524/http://www.britannica.com/bps/browse/alpha/t/124

"Email" is the e-mail address you used when you registered.

"Password" is case sensitive.

If you need additional assistance, please contact .

Enter the e-mail address you used when enrolling for Britannica Premium Service and we will e-mail your password to you.

A-Z Browse

  • Tropaeolum peltophorum (plant)
    ...feet) tall, and the flowers are commonly yellow-orange with red spots or stripes. T. minus, the dwarf nasturtium, has flowers 3 cm (1.2 inches) across or less. T. peltophorum, the shield nasturtium, is a climbing plant with orange-red flowers about 2.5 cm (1 inch) long. T. peregrinum is commonly known as the canary creeper....
  • Tropaeolum peregrinum (plant)
    (species Tropaeolum peregrinum), annual climbing herb, of the family Tropaeolaceae, native to northwestern South America and introduced to other regions as a cultivated garden plant. It grows to a height of 1.8–3 m (6–10 feet). The...
  • Tropaeum Trajani (monument, Romania)
    The frieze of a great, circular Tropaeum Trajani, set up in the Dobruja (Romania) to commemorate victories over the Dacians, contains a series of metopes (a decoration in a Doric frieze) carved with figure scenes in a naïve, flat, linear style that suggests the hands of army artists of provincial origin....
  • tropaion (ancient Greek memorial)
    (from Greek tropaion, from tropē, “rout”), in ancient Greece, memorial of victory set up on the field of battle at the spot where the enemy had been routed. It consisted of captured arms and standards hung upon a tree or stake in the semblance of a man and was inscribed with details of the...
  • troparion (vocal music)
    short hymn or stanza sung in Greek Orthodox religious services. The word probably derives from a diminutive of the Greek tropos (“something repeated,” “manner,” “fashion”), with a possible analogy to the Italian ritornello (“refrain”; diminutive of ritorno, “return”). Since the 5th century, troparion...
  • trope (philosophy)
    ...by some evidence, there is an opposite proposition supported by evidence that is equally good. Arguments like these, which are designed to refute both sides of an issue, are known as “tropes.” The judgment that a tower is round when seen at a distance, for example, is contradicted by the judgment that the tower is square when seen up close. The judgment that Providence cares......
  • trope (rhetoric)
    ...(e.g., pun and anagram); and (5) errors (e.g., malapropism, periphrasis, and spoonerism). Figures involving a change in sense, such as metaphor, simile, and irony, are called tropes....
  • trope (music)
    in medieval church music, melody, explicatory text, or both added to a plainchant melody. Tropes are of two general types: those adding a new text to a melisma (section of music having one syllable extended over many notes); and those inserting new music, usually with words, between existing sections of melody and text....
  • trope nominalism (philosophy)
    Other nominalists, so-called “trope” nominalists, follow the American philosopher Donald Cary Williams in positing an extra kind of part for things. Williams held that a round red disk, for example, has parts in addition to its concrete spatial parts, such as its upper and lower halves. It also has as parts a particular “redness trope” and a particular “roundness...
  • Tropenmuseum (museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands)
    ...window on a world otherwise distant and unknown. Thus were founded the Musée de l’Homme (Museum of Man), Paris; the extensive ethnographic collections of the British Museum, London; and the Tropenmuseum (Museum of the Royal Tropical Institute), Amsterdam. Specialized ethnography museums are also to be found in provincial cities. Normally these have arisen through personal associat...
  • trophallaxis (zoology)
    ...to another about the location, distance, quantity, and quality of a particular food source. These movements were carefully studied and described by the German entomologist Karl von Frisch. Trophallaxis, or the mutual exchange of food between larvae and adults of bees, ants, and wasps, has been of special interest to hymenopterists. Hyperparasitism—the parasitic habit of one......
  • Trophées, Les (work by Heredia)
    Heredia’s 118 sonnets and some longer pieces were published as Les Trophées (1893). These poems capture in verse a fugitive moment of history (usually classical or Renaissance) or else some objet d’art (a vase, a coin, an ornate book binding), usually in one startling image. A selection of his poems in English translation was published in The Flute, with Other Transl...
  • trophic cascade (ecology)
    an ecological phenomenon triggered by the addition or removal of top predators and involving reciprocal changes in the relative populations of predator and prey through a food chain, which often results in dramatic changes in ecosystem structure and nutrient cycling. In a three-level food chain, an increase (or decrease) in carnivores causes...
  • trophic factor (biochemistry)
    ...axons and nerve branches to their appropriate targets and eliminate those that try to synapse with inappropriate targets. Once a synaptic connection has been established, a target cell releases a trophic factor (e.g., nerve growth factor) that is essential for the survival of the neuron synapsing with it. Physical guidance cues are involved in contact guidance, or the migration of immature......
  • trophic hormone (endocrinology)
    ...analysis of these hormones also is difficult, for the targets of certain hormones of the adenohypophysis, called tropic, or trophic, hormones, are other endocrine glands. The action of such tropic hormones can be understood only in the light of the mode of function of the endocrine glands they regulate....
  • trophic level (ecology)
    step in a nutritive series, or food chain, of an ecosystem. The organisms of a chain are classified into these levels on the basis of their feeding behaviour. The first and lowest level contains the producers, green plants...
  • trophic pyramid (ecology)
    the basic structure of interaction in all biological communities characterized by the manner in which food energy is passed from one trophic level to the next along the food chain. The base of the pyramid is composed of species called autotrophs, the primary producers of the e...
  • trophism (biology)
    ...problems can arise with biological variability is heart size. If the heart is subjected to a greater than normal burden over a long period, it can respond by growing larger (the process is known as hypertrophy). This occurs in certain forms of heart disease, especially in those involving long-standing high blood pressure or structural defects of the heart valves. A large heart, therefore, may.....
  • trophoblast (embryology)
    The enveloping layer is now referred to as the trophoblast. It does not contribute directly to the formation of the embryo but rather serves to establish a connection with the maternal uterus. It is a precursor of the placenta. ...
  • trophogenic zone (ecology)
    ...and photosynthetic bacteria of the plankton community) (Figure 4). Plants are found only in the photic zone—the upper portion of the lake where photosynthesis occurs, also called the trophogenic zone. In this zone the production of biochemical energy through photosynthesis is greater than its consumption through respiration and decomposition. Animals and decomposers are found in......
  • trophy (ancient Greek memorial)
    (from Greek tropaion, from tropē, “rout”), in ancient Greece, memorial of victory set up on the field of battle at the spot where the enemy had been routed. It consisted of captured arms and standards hung upon a tree or stake in the semblance of a man and was inscribed with details of the...
  • tropic bird
    any member of three seabird species that constitute the family Phaethontidae (order Pelicaniformes). Tropic birds are characterized by pairs of streaming central tail feathers, which may be as long as the bird’s body. Sailors call them marlin-spikes and bosun birds...
  • tropic hormone (endocrinology)
    ...analysis of these hormones also is difficult, for the targets of certain hormones of the adenohypophysis, called tropic, or trophic, hormones, are other endocrine glands. The action of such tropic hormones can be understood only in the light of the mode of function of the endocrine glands they regulate....
  • Tropic of Cancer (work by Miller)
    ...and he wrote about his childhood experiences there in Black Spring (1936). In 1924 he left his job with Western Union in New York to devote himself to writing. In 1930 he went to France. Tropic of Cancer (published in France in 1934, in the United States in 1961) is based on his hand-to-mouth existence in Depression-ridden Paris. Tropic of Capricorn (France, 1939; U.S.,......
  • Tropic of Cancer (film by Strick [1970])
    She was first credited as Ellen Burstyn in Alex in Wonderland (1970), a comedy about the film industry. In 1970 she also starred in Tropic of Cancer, an adaptation of Henry Miller’s autobiographical novel in which she played Miller’s wife. She received an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actress for The L...
  • Tropic Thunder (film by Stiller [2008])
    ...Stauffenberg, a German army officer who organized an attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler. In 2008 Cruise earned acclaim as the abrasive movie executive Les Grossman in the comedy Tropic Thunder. Two years later he starred in the action-thriller Knight and Day....
  • tropical agriculture
    The area of the world bounded roughly on the north by the Tropic of Cancer and on the south by the Tropic of Capricorn, a vast land that embraces large parts of Latin America, Africa, India, Australia, and Southeast Asia, contains climates less favourable to agriculture and human settlement than those of the temperate zones. Within this Equator-centred area occur the climates known as tropical,......
  • tropical air mass (atmospheric science)
    The maritime Tropical (mT) is the most important moisture-bearing and rain-producing air mass throughout the year. In winter it moves poleward and is cooled by the ground surface. Consequently, it is characterized by fog or low stratus or stratocumulus clouds, with drizzle and poor visibility. A steep lapse rate aloft in regions of cyclonic activity ensures the occurrence of heavy frontal and......
  • tropical almond (plant)
    ...America; T. obovata, of the West Indies and South America; and T. superba, of West Africa yield woods used for cabinetwork, tools, and boat construction. T. catappa, the Indian, or tropical, almond, is commonly cultivated for ornament, particularly along streets in the tropics. ...
  • tropical American false vampire bat (mammal)
    ...it weighs about 250 grams (about 9 ounces). The largest of the carnivorous bats (and the largest bat in the New World) is the spectral bat (Vampyrum spectrum), also known as the tropical American false vampire bat, with a wingspan of over 60 cm (24 inches). The tiny hog-nosed, or bumblebee, bat (Craseonycteris thonglongyai) of Thailand is one of the smallest mammals.......
  • tropical and subtropical desert climate
    major climate type of the Köppen classification dominated in all months by the subtropical anticyclone (or subtropical high), with its descending air, elevated inversions, and clear skies. Such an atmospheric environment inhibits precipitation. Most of Earth’s tropical, true desert (...
  • tropical and subtropical steppe climate
    major climate type of the Köppen classification that occurs primarily on the periphery of the true deserts in low-latitude semiarid steppe regions. Such regions are denoted by the abbreviation BSh in the Köppen-Geiger-Pohl system....
  • Tropical Botanical Forest Park (park, Taiwan)
    ...in Taiwan. Its industries manufacture metal goods, machinery, and chemicals and produce alcoholic beverages and canned food. P’ing-tung city, the administrative seat, has a large military base. The Tropical Botanical Forest Park at Heng-ch’un covers an area of 100 acres (40 hectares) and has one of the largest experimental forests in Southeast Asia. A 126-square-mile (326-square-k...
  • tropical boubou (bird)
    ...cm (8 inches) long, plain-coloured, often with a slash of white on the wings. All black forms include the sooty boubou (L. leucorhynchus). Black and white, with red-tinged underparts, is the tropical boubou (L. aethiopicus). Black above and bright red below are the black-headed, or Abyssinian, gonolek (L. erythrogaster) and the Barbary shrike (L. barbarus)....
  • Tropical continental air mass (meteorology)
    The continental Tropical (cT) air mass originates in arid or desert regions in the middle or lower latitudes, principally during the summer season. It is strongly heated in general, but its moisture content is so low that the intense dry convection normally fails to reach the condensation level. Of all the air masses, the cT is the most arid, and it sustains the belt of subtropical deserts......
  • tropical cyclone (meteorology)
    an intense circular storm that originates over warm tropical oceans and is characterized by low atmospheric pressure, high winds, and heavy rain. Drawing energy from the sea surface and maintaining its strength as long as it remains over warm water, a tropical cyclone generates winds that exceed 119 km (74 miles) per hour. In extreme cases winds may exceed 240 km (150 miles) per hour, and gusts ma...
  • tropical deciduous forest (ecology)
    open woodland in tropical areas that have a long dry season followed by a season of heavy rainfall. The trees in a monsoon forest usually shed their leaves during the dry season and come into leaf at the start of the rainy season. Many lianas (woody vines) and herbaceous epiphytes (air plants, such as orchids are present. Mo...
  • tropical depression (meteorology)
    ...a record increase (6.9%) in the consumer price index. Prices for staples increased substantially: wheat flour (51.5%), gasoline (7.8%), and diesel fuel (35.4%). In June Tropical Depression Arthur brought historic flooding to the mid-south of the country, with estimated damages of at least $60 million, excluding the cost of road infrastructure....
  • tropical desert climate
    major climate type of the Köppen classification dominated in all months by the subtropical anticyclone (or subtropical high), with its descending air, elevated inversions, and clear skies. Such an atmospheric environment inhibits precipitation. Most of Earth’s tropical, true desert (...
  • tropical disease
    ...are common in lowland areas but rare at higher elevations and in the subtropical climate zones. The Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, located in Rio de Janeiro, is Brazil’s major research institute for tropical diseases....
  • tropical easterly jet stream (meteorology)
    ...lies above the subtropical high-pressure belt and is usually associated with fair weather. During summer a third system occurs over Southeast Asia, India, the Arabian Sea, and tropical Africa. This tropical jet stream affects the formation and duration of Indian and African summer monsoons....
  • tropical fish (zoology)
    Any of various small fishes of tropical origin often kept in aquariums. They are interesting for their behaviour or showiness or both. Popular varieties include the angelfish, guppy, kissing gourami, sea horse, Siamese fighting fish, and tetra....
  • tropical food poisoning (pathology)
    Ciguatera is a disease of humans caused by consumption of tropical fish that have fed on the alga Gambierdiscus or Ostreopsis. Unlike many other dinoflagellate toxins, ciguatoxin and maitotoxin are concentrated in finfish rather than shellfish. Levels as low as one part per billion in fish can be sufficient to cause human intoxication....
  • tropical forest
    As recently as the 19th century tropical forests covered approximately 20 percent of the dry land area on Earth. By the end of the 20th century this figure had dropped to less than 7 percent. The factors contributing to deforestation are numerous, complex, and often international in scope. Mechanization in the form of chain saws, bulldozers, transportation, and wood processing has enabled far......
  • tropical grassland (geography)
    The largest areas of natural grassland—those resulting from climatic dryness—can be classified into two broad categories: tropical grasslands, which generally lie between the belts of tropical forest and desert; and temperate grasslands, which generally lie between deserts and temperate forests. Tropical grasslands occur in the same regions as savannas, and the distinction between......
  • tropical greenhouse (horticulture)
    ...African violets, chrysanthemums, orchids, roses, Boston ferns, coleuses, and many kinds of ferns and of cacti and other succulents are suited to such temperatures. In a tropical greenhouse, or hothouse, which has nighttime temperatures of 60–70 °F (16–21 °C), caladiums, philodendrons, begonias, gardenias, poinsettias, bougainvilleas, passionflowers, and many kinds of...
  • tropical humid climate
    Köppen’s A climates are found in a nearly unbroken belt around the Earth at low latitudes, mostly within 15° N and S. Their location within a region in which available net solar radiation is large and relatively constant from month to month ensures both high temperatures (generally in excess of 18 °C [64 °F]) and a virtual absence of thermal seasons. Typically, t...
  • Tropical Malady (film by Weerasethakul [2004])
    ...Asian soap opera, the third in a series featuring a transvestite secret agent. Like Blissfully Yours in reverse, Sud pralad (2004; Tropical Malady; “Strange Animal”) is also a two-part feature. The first part examines the attraction between two young men, and the second part, set in a jungle, portrays the.....
  • tropical medicine
    medical science applied to diseases that occur primarily in countries with tropical or subtropical climates. Tropical medicine arose during the 19th century when physicians charged with the medical care of colonists and soldiers first encountered infectious diseases unknown in the temperate European climate. Several major advances in the cont...
  • tropical mockingbird (bird)
    ...species within 10 minutes. It is 27 cm (10.5 inches) long and gray with darker wings and tail both marked with white. It ranges from the northern United States to Mexico—or to Brazil, if the tropical mockingbird (M. gilvus) is considered a race rather than a separate species—and has been introduced into Hawaii. It thrives in suburban areas. This bird sings from high perches...
  • tropical monsoon and trade-wind littoral climate (meteorology)
    major climate type of the Köppen classification characterized by small annual temperature ranges, high temperatures, and plentiful precipitation (often more than wet equatorial, or Af, climates in annual total). Despite their resemblance to wet equatorial climates, tropical monsoon and trade-wind ...
  • tropical monsoon climate (meteorology)
    ...temperature ranges, high temperatures, and plentiful precipitation (often more than wet equatorial, or Af, climates in annual total). Despite their resemblance to wet equatorial climates, tropical monsoon and trade-wind littoral climates exhibit a short dry season, usually in the low-sun (“winter”) season, and the highest temperatures generally occur at the end of this clear spell...
  • tropical montane forest (ecology)
    vegetation of tropical mountainous regions in which the rainfall is often heavy and persistent condensation occurs because of cooling of moisture-laden air currents deflected upward by the mountains. The trees in a cloud forest are typically short and crooked. Mosses, climbing ferns, lichens, and epiphytes (air plants, such as orchids) form th...
  • tropical month (chronology)
    ...days (i.e., 27 days 7 hours 43 minutes 12 seconds); the difference between synodic and sidereal lengths is due to the orbital movement of the Earth–Moon system around the Sun. The tropical month, 27.321582 days (i.e., 27 days 7 hours 43 minutes 5 seconds), only 7 seconds shorter than the sidereal month, is the time between passages of the Moon through the same celestial......
  • tropical rain forest
    luxuriant forest, generally composed of broad-leaved trees and found in wet tropical uplands and lowlands around the Equator....
  • tropical rainforest
    luxuriant forest, generally composed of broad-leaved trees and found in wet tropical uplands and lowlands around the Equator....
  • tropical red earth (soil)
    The majority of tropical soils have shades of colour varying from yellow and brown to red. The reddish colour reflects the presence of iron oxides that form as a result of chemical weathering. At one time all tropical red earths or soils were indiscriminately referred to as laterites, but it is now clear that the term laterite should be confined to those tropical soils with large concentrations......
  • tropical red loam (soil)
    The majority of tropical soils have shades of colour varying from yellow and brown to red. The reddish colour reflects the presence of iron oxides that form as a result of chemical weathering. At one time all tropical red earths or soils were indiscriminately referred to as laterites, but it is now clear that the term laterite should be confined to those tropical soils with large concentrations......
  • tropical splenomegaly (pathology)
    infectious disease that is a type of leishmaniasis....
  • tropical sprue (disease)
    an acquired disease characterized by the small intestine’s impaired absorption of fats, vitamins, and minerals. Its cause is unknown; infection, parasite infestation, vitamin deficiency, and food toxins have been suggested as possible causes. It is found primarily in the Caribbean, southeast Asia, India, and areas in which polished rice is a staple food. Sprue often atta...
  • tropical steppe climate
    major climate type of the Köppen classification that occurs primarily on the periphery of the true deserts in low-latitude semiarid steppe regions. Such regions are denoted by the abbreviation BSh in the Köppen-Geiger-Pohl system....
  • tropical storm
    organized centre of low pressure that originates over warm tropical oceans. The maximum sustained surface winds of tropical storms range from 63 to 118 km (39 to 73 miles) per hour. These storms represent an intermediate stage between loosely organized ...
  • tropical upper tropospheric trough (meteorology)
    ...large areas of upper-level low pressure help pull air from the centre of the developing disturbances and thus contribute to a drop in surface atmospheric pressure. It is these features, known as tropical upper tropospheric troughs, or TUTTs, that are responsible for the large number of tropical cyclones in the western Pacific....
  • tropical weasel (mammal)
    ...species can be differentiated by the stoat’s black-tipped tail. In North America the largest weasel is the long-tailed weasel (M. frenata); in South America it is the tropical weasel (M. africana). Both measure 25–30 cm, excluding the 10–20-cm tail; weight is 85–350 grams. With most weasels, males are usually ...
  • tropical wet-dry climate (meteorology)
    major climate type of the Köppen classification characterized by distinct wet and dry seasons, with most of the precipitation occurring in the high-sun (“summer”) season. The dry season is longer than in tropical monsoon and trade-wind littoral (Am...
  • tropical yam (plant)
    any of several plant species of the genus Dioscorea (family Dioscoreaceae), native to warmer regions of both hemispheres. A number of species are cultivated for food in the tropics; in certain tropical cultures, notably of West Africa and New Guinea...
  • tropical year (chronology)
    In astronomy, several kinds of year are distinguished, having slightly different lengths. The solar year (365 days 5 hours 48 minutes 46 seconds), also called tropical year, or year of the seasons, is the time between two successive occurrences of the vernal equinox (the moment when the Sun apparently crosses the celestial equator moving north). Because of the precession of the equinoxes (an......
  • tropical zone
    Australian plant life is distributed in three main zones—the Tropical, Temperate, and Eremian—a pattern that reflects overall climatic conditions. The Tropical Zone, which arcs east and west across the northern margin of the continent and extends halfway down the eastern seaboard, has a mainly dry monsoonal climate, with some wet regions. The Temperate Zone, with a cool-to-warm......
  • Tropicália (musical movement)
    A major Latin American music festival was held in London to celebrate the impact made by the Brazilian Tropicália movement in the late 1960s. Setting out to modernize Brazilian music and taking note of the rock music revolution in the United States and Britain, these musicians encountered the opposition of the military rulers then in power in Brazil. Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil (now......
  • Tropicalismo (musical movement)
    A major Latin American music festival was held in London to celebrate the impact made by the Brazilian Tropicália movement in the late 1960s. Setting out to modernize Brazilian music and taking note of the rock music revolution in the United States and Britain, these musicians encountered the opposition of the military rulers then in power in Brazil. Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil (now......
  • tropics
    Australian plant life is distributed in three main zones—the Tropical, Temperate, and Eremian—a pattern that reflects overall climatic conditions. The Tropical Zone, which arcs east and west across the northern margin of the continent and extends halfway down the eastern seaboard, has a mainly dry monsoonal climate, with some wet regions. The Temperate Zone, with a cool-to-warm......
  • Tropidacris latriellei (insect)
    ...most of its life on floating vegetation and actively swims and lays eggs on underwater aquatic plants. Grasshoppers generally are large, with some exceeding 11 cm (4 inches) in length (e.g., Tropidacris latriellei of South America)....
  • Tropidoleptus (fossil brachiopod genus)
    genus of extinct brachiopods (lamp shells) found as fossils only in marine rocks of the Devonian Period (416 million to 359 million years ago); this temporal restriction makes it a useful guide, or index, fossil, allowing correlation of widely separated rocks. The shell is roughly elliptical and distinctiv...
  • Tropidophiidae (reptile)
    Except for two egg-laying Asian species (genus Xenophidion), the 24 dwarf boas of family Tropidophiidae bear live young and live in the West Indies, Central America, and northern South America. They are predominantly terrestrial, occasionally foraging in low trees and bushes to hunt small vertebrates, especially amphibians and lizards....
  • Tropidophorus (reptile)
    Some of the more common genera are described below. Keeled skinks (Tropidophorus), which are semiaquatic, are found from Southeast Asia to northern Australia. Mabuyas (Mabuya), with about 105 species, are ground dwellers and are distributed worldwide in the tropics. Sand skinks (Scincus), also called......
  • Tropidurus (reptile)
    Some of the more common genera are described below. Keeled skinks (Tropidophorus), which are semiaquatic, are found from Southeast Asia to northern Australia. Mabuyas (Mabuya), with about 105 species, are ground dwellers and are distributed worldwide in the tropics. Sand skinks (Scincus), also called.........
  • Tropilaelaps clareae (mite)
    ...mite. The only U.S. federal law pertaining to bees was passed to prevent the importation of adult bees carrying this mite into the United States. Two other mites, Varroa destructor and Tropilaelaps clareae, which are native to Asia, are serious problems for beekeepers. V. destructor is now commonly found in Europe and North America, where it is capable of......
  • tropism (biology)
    response or orientation of a plant or certain lower animals to a stimulus that acts with greater intensity from one direction than another. It may be achieved by active movement or by structural alteration. Forms of tropism include phototropism (response to light), geotropism (response to gravity), chemotropism (response to particular substances), hydrotropism...
  • tropisme (French literature)
    The two terms most heard in connection with the French anti-novel are chosisme and tropisme. The first, with which Robbe-Grillet is chiefly associated, relates to the novelist’s concern with things in themselves, not things as human symbols or metaphors. The second, which provided a title for Nathalie Sarraute’s early novel, denotes the response of the human mind to ext...
  • “Tropismes” (work by Sarraute)
    ...of the traditional novel in her theoretical essay L’Ère du soupçon (1956; The Age of Suspicion) and experimented with technique in Tropismes (1939 and 1957; Tropisms), her first collection of sketches. In this work she introduced the notion of “tropisms,” a term borrowed from botany and meaning elemental impulses alternately attract...
  • Tropisms (work by Sarraute)
    ...of the traditional novel in her theoretical essay L’Ère du soupçon (1956; The Age of Suspicion) and experimented with technique in Tropismes (1939 and 1957; Tropisms), her first collection of sketches. In this work she introduced the notion of “tropisms,” a term borrowed from botany and meaning elemental impulses alternately attract...
  • Tropites (paleontology)
    genus of extinct cephalopods (animals similar to the modern squid and octopus but with an external shell) found as fossils in marine rocks of the Late Triassic Period (from 230 to 208 million years ago). Because of its narrow time range, Tropites is a good index fossil (useful for ...
  • tropocollagen (biology)
    ...Collagen, which constitutes almost one-third of the body protein, is found in skin, bone, and tendons. When first synthesized by cells called fibroblasts, collagen is in a fragile and soluble form (tropocollagen). In time this soluble collagen changes to a more stable, insoluble form that can persist in tissues for most of an animal’s life. The rate of collagen synthesis is high in youth...
  • tropological interpretation (hermeneutics)
    ...as the salvation event that has happened “for us,” it always contains the spiritual meaning in itself. In debates with the Spiritualists and Enthusiasts, who made use of the allegorical-tropological (figurative) method, Luther appealed ever more strongly to the unequivocal “clarity” of the letter of the Scriptures, which contains the “clarity” of the......
  • tropomyosin (protein)
    Tropomyosin is a rod-shaped molecule about 40 nm long. Two strands of tropomyosin molecules run diametrically opposed along the actin filaments. Tropomyosin has a structure similar to that of the myosin tail, being a coiled unit of two protein chains. Each tropomyosin molecule is in contact with seven actin units....
  • troponin (protein)
    Troponin is a complex of three different protein subunits. One troponin complex is bound to every tropomyosin molecule. A troponin molecule is located approximately every 40 nm along the filament. Troponin and tropomyosin are both involved in the regulation of the contraction and relaxation of muscles. One of the subunits (TnC) is the receptor for Ca2+ released from the sarcoplasmic......
  • tropopause (atmospheric region)
    One weakness common to virtually all satellite-borne sensors and to some ground-based radars that use UHF/VHF waves is an inability to measure thin layers of the atmosphere. One such layer is the tropopause, the boundary between the relatively dry stratosphere and the more meteorologically active layer below. This is often the region of the jet streams. Important information about these kinds......
  • troposphere (atmospheric region)
    lowest region of the atmosphere, bounded by the Earth beneath and the stratosphere above, with its upper boundary being the tropopause, about 10–18 km (6–11 miles) above the Earth’s surface. The troposphere is characterized by decreasing temperature with height and is distinguished from the overlying stratosphere by a region of nearly constant temperature in...
  • tropotaxis (animal behaviour)
    In tropotaxis, attainment of orientation is direct, resulting from turning toward the less stimulated (negative) or more stimulated (positive) side as simultaneous, automatic comparisons of intensities on two sides of the body are made. No deviations (trial movements) are required. Tropotaxis is shown by animals with paired intensity receptors. If exposed to stimulation from two sources,......
  • Troppau (Czech Republic)
    city, northeastern Czech Republic. It lies along the Opava River near the Polish border and is northwest of Ostrava, from which it is separated by part of the wooded Oder Hills....
  • Troppau, Congress of (Europe [1820])
    (October–December 1820), meeting of the Holy Alliance powers, held at Troppau in Silesia (modern Opava, Czech Republic), at which the Troppau protocol, a declaration of intention to take collective action against revolution, was signed (Nov. 19,...
  • Troqueurs, Les (French operetta)
    ...eventually resolved by the emergence of the opéra bouffe (literally, “comic opera”)—the French variety of operetta. It is usually dated to the Paris production in 1753 of Les Troqueurs (“The Barterers”), based on a fable by Jean de La Fontaine and having original music by a court violinist, Antoine Dauvergne....
  • Trossachs, the (region, Scotland, United Kingdom)
    tourist area in the Highlands of the Stirling council area, historic county of Perthshire, Scotland. In popular usage the name is applied to the rugged country extending west of Callander to Loch Katrine, but strictly it refers to that part of the glen between Loch Achray and the lower end of Loch Katrine....
  • “Tröst Einsamkeit” (German journal)
    ...at Heidelberg (1806–07), where he became acquainted with the leaders of the second phase of German Romanticism, particularly Achim von Arnim and Clemens Brentano. With them he edited the Zeitung für Einsiedler (“Journal for Hermits,” renamed Tröst Einsamkeit; “Consolation Solitude”), which became the organ for the Heidelberg Romanti...
  • Trostan (mountain, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom)
    ...Head (635 feet [194 m]), a perpendicular cliff. Collapse of the basalt caused the depression holding Lough Neagh, the largest inland lake in the British Isles. Prominent peaks in Antrim included Trostan (1,817 feet), Knocklayd (1,695 feet), and Slieveanorra (1,676 feet); Divis (1,574 feet) is the highest of the Belfast hills. The basalt reaches the north coast as steep cliffs and, at the......
  • trot (animal locomotion)
    two-beat gait of a horse in which the feet are lifted and strike the ground in diagonal pairs—the right hind and left fore almost simultaneously; then the left hind and right fore. As the horse springs from one pair of legs to the other, twice in each stride all of its legs are off the ground at once....
  • Troteras y danzaderas (work by Pérez de Ayala)
    ...or “To the Greater Glory of God”), a bitter satire about the author’s unhappy education at a Jesuit school; La pata de la raposa (1912; The Fox’s Paw); and Troteras y danzaderas (1913; “Trotters and Dancers”), a novel about literary and Bohemian life in Madrid....
  • Trotha, Lother von (German military officer)
    ...13 Leutwein’s troops were forced into an embarrassing retreat, and the governor was consequently relieved of his military command. In his place the German emperor, William II, appointed Lieut. Gen. Lothar von Trotha as the new commander in chief. He was a colonial veteran of the wars in German East Africa and of the Boxer Rebellion in China....
  • Trotman, Alexander James (British business executive)
    British business executive (b. July 22, 1933, Isleworth, Middlesex, Eng.—d. April 25, 2005, Yorkshire, Eng.), rose through the corporate ranks at Ford Motor Co. from his start as a management trainee in London in 1955 to become (1993) the giant automaker’s first non-American chairman and CEO. During his tenure at the top, Trotman supervised the rebirth of the Mustang, oversaw the gro...
  • Trotsky, Leon (Russian revolutionary)
    communist theorist and agitator, a leader in Russia’s October Revolution in 1917, and later commissar of foreign affairs and of war in the Soviet Union (1917–24). In the struggle for power following Vladimir Ilich Lenin...
  • All of the media associated with this article appears on the left. Click an item to view it.
  • Mouse over the caption, credit, links or citations to learn more.
  • You can mouse over some images to magnify, or click on them to view full-screen.
  • Click on the Expand button to view this full-screen. Press Escape to return.
  • Click on audio player controls to interact.
JOIN COMMUNITY LOGIN
Join Free Community

Please join our community in order to save your work, create a new document, upload media files, recommend an article or submit changes to our editors.

Log In

"Email" is the e-mail address you used when you registered. "Password" is case sensitive.

If you need additional assistance, please contact customer support.

Enter the e-mail address you used when registering and we will e-mail your password to you. (or click on Cancel to go back).

Save to My Workspace
Share the full text of this article with your friends, associates, or readers by linking to it from your web site or social networking page.

Permalink
Copy Link
Britannica needs you! Become a part of more than two centuries of publishing tradition by contributing to this article. If your submission is accepted by our editors, you'll become a Britannica contributor and your name will appear along with the other people who have contributed to this article. View Submission Guidelines

Have a comment about this page?
Please, contact us. If this is a correction, your suggested change will be reviewed by our editorial staff.

(Please limit to 900 characters) Send

Copy and paste the HTML below to include this widget on your Web page.

Copy Link
The Britannica Store

Share This

Other users can view this at the following URL:
Copy

Create New Project

Done

Rename This Project

Done

Add or Remove from Projects

Add to project:
Add
Remove from Project:
Remove

Copy This Project

Copy

Import Projects

Please enter your user name and password
that you use to sign in to your workspace account on
Britannica Online Academic.