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parrotfish

(Encyclopedia)parrotfish, common name for a member of a large group of colorful reef fishes of warm seas, resembling the wrasses but of a larger size. Long considered a separate family, Scaridae, they are now group...

Cartagena, city, Colombia

(Encyclopedia)Cartagena kärtähāˈnä [key], city, capital of Bolívar dept., NW Colombia, a port on the ...

Polynesia

(Encyclopedia)Polynesia pŏlĭnēˈzhə, –shə [key] [Gr.,=many islands], one of the three main divisions of Oceania, in the central and S Pacific Ocean. The larger islands are volcanic; the smaller ones are gene...

fluorescence

(Encyclopedia)fluorescence flo͝orĕsˈəns [key], luminescence in which light of a visible color is emitted from a substance under stimulation or excitation by light or other forms of electromagnetic radiation or ...

lacquer

(Encyclopedia)lacquer, solution of film-forming materials, natural or synthetic, usually applied as an ornamental or protective coating. Quick-drying synthetic lacquers are used to coat automobiles, furniture, text...

Society Islands

(Encyclopedia)Society Islands, island group (2002 pop. 214,445), South Pacific, a part of French Polynesia. The group comprises the Windward Islands and the Leeward Islands (total land area c.650 sq mi/1,680 sq km)...

Sulu Archipelago

(Encyclopedia)Sulu Archipelago so͞oˈlo͞o [key], island group, 1,086 sq mi (2,813 sq km), the Philippines, SW of Mindanao. Lying between the Celebes and Sulu seas, it includes over 900 volcanic islands and coral ...

aircraft carrier

(Encyclopedia)aircraft carrier, ship designed to carry aircraft and to permit takeoff and landing of planes. The carrier's distinctive features are a upper deck (flight deck) that is flat and sometimes sloped to fu...

eel

(Encyclopedia)eel, common name for any fish in the order Anguilliformes, and characterized by a long snakelike body covered with minute scales embedded in the skin. Eels lack the hind pair of fins, adapting them fo...

Miami, cities, United States

(Encyclopedia)Miami mīămˈē, –ə [key]. 1 City (1990 pop. 358,548), seat of Dade co., SE Fla., on Biscayne Bay at the mouth of the Miami River; inc. 1896. The region of Greater Miami encompasses all of Dade co...