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cherry

(Encyclopedia)cherry, name for several species of trees or shrubs of the genus Prunus (a few are sometimes classed as Padus) of the family Rosaceae (rose family) and for their fruits. The small, round red to black ...

Turkic

(Encyclopedia)Turkic tûrˈkĭk [key], group of languages forming a subdivision of the Altaic subfamily of the Ural-Altaic family of languages (see Uralic and Altaic languages). The Turkic group of languages has a ...

Parthia

(Encyclopedia)Parthia pärˈthēə [key], ancient country of Asia, SE of the Caspian Sea. In its narrowest limits it consisted of a mountainous region intersected with fertile valleys, lying S of Hyrcania and corre...

ground squirrel

(Encyclopedia)ground squirrel, name applied to certain terrestrial rodents of the squirrel family. In North America the name refers to members of the genus Citellus and sometimes to the closely related genera Tamia...

sunbird

(Encyclopedia)sunbird, common name for tropical, Old World birds, including more than one hundred species in the family Nectariniidae. Like the unrelated New World hummingbirds, to which sunbirds are often compared...

Izmir

(Encyclopedia)Izmir smûrˈnə [key], city, capital of Izmir prov., W Turkey, on the Gulf of Izmir, an arm ...

plague

(Encyclopedia)plague, any contagious, malignant, epidemic disease, in particular the bubonic plague and the black plague (or Black Death), both forms of the same infection. These acute febrile diseases are caused b...

Turkistan

(Encyclopedia)Turkistan or Turkestan both: tûrkˌĭstănˈ, –stänˈ [key], historic region of central Asia. Western, or Russian, Turkistan extended from the Caspian Sea in the west to the Chinese frontier in th...

Nekhtnebf

(Encyclopedia)Nekhtnebf or Nekhtnebef both: nĕkhtˌnĕbˈəf [key], Gr. Nectanebo I, d. 361 b.c., king of ancient Egypt (379–361 b.c.), founder of the XXX dynasty. By the gallant defense of the fortresses of the...

Oceania

(Encyclopedia)Oceania ōshēănˈĭkə [key], collective name for the approximately 25,000 islands of the Pacific, usually excluding such nontropical areas as the Ryukyu and Aleutian islands and Japan, as well as T...