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Matsukata, Masayoshi

(Encyclopedia)Matsukata, Masayoshi mäsīˈōshē mätso͞oˈkäˌtä [key], 1835–1924, Japanese statesman. A Satsuma clansman and a genro, he was a leading figure in the modernization of Japan. As finance minist...

Marx, Wilhelm

(Encyclopedia)Marx, Wilhelm vĭlˈhĕlm [key], 1863–1946, German statesman. A Reichstag member, he was a leading figure of the Catholic Center party and was elected its president in 1921. As chancellor (1923–24...

Lady of the Lake

(Encyclopedia)Lady of the Lake, in Arthurian legend, a misty, supernatural figure endowed with magic powers, who gave the sword Excalibur to King Arthur. She inhabited a castle in an underwater kingdom. According t...

Kupala, Janka

(Encyclopedia)Kupala, Janka yängˈkä ko͞opäˈlä [key], 1888–1942, Belorussian poet and writer, whose original name was Ivan Lutsevich. Kupala was a major figure of the Belorussian national and cultural reviv...

Lane, Fitz Hugh

(Encyclopedia)Lane, Fitz Hugh, 1804–65, American painter and printmaker, b. Gloucester, Mass. A painter of ships and coastal panoramas, Lane is most notable as a leading figure in American luminism. He illuminate...

Tuwim, Julian

(Encyclopedia)Tuwim, Julian yo͞olˈyän to͞oˈvēm [key], 1894–1953, Polish poet. A leader of the Skamander group of experimental poets, he was also a major figure in his nation's literature. In his principal c...

Volk, Leonard Wells

(Encyclopedia)Volk, Leonard Wells, 1828–95, American sculptor, b. Wellstown (now Wells), N.Y. In 1848 he went to St. Louis, where he studied drawing and worked at funerary sculpture. With the aid of Stephen A. Do...

Burt, Cyril Lodowic

(Encyclopedia)Burt, Cyril Lodowic lŏdˈəwĭk, lōˈdə– [key], 1883–1971, British psychologist. Educated at Oxford and Würzburg, he became a prominent figure in psychology. Burt made significant contribution...

trapezoid

(Encyclopedia)trapezoid, closed plane figure bounded by four line segments, or sides, two of which are parallel and two of which are nonparallel. The parallel sides of a trapezoid are called bases and the nonparall...

simile

(Encyclopedia)simile sĭmˈəlē [key] [Lat.,=likeness], in rhetoric, a figure of speech in which an object is explicitly compared to another object. Robert Burns's poem “A Red Red Rose” contains two straightfo...