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Jugurtha

(Encyclopedia)Jugurtha jo͞ogûrˈthə [key], c.156–104 b.c., king of Numidia, a grandson of Masinissa. On the death of Micipsa (118 b.c.), the royal power devolved upon his two sons and upon his adopted son Jugu...

District of Columbia

(Encyclopedia)District of Columbia, federal district (2020 pop. 689,545), 69 sq mi (179 sq km), on the east bank of the Potomac River, coextensive with the city of Wa...

chorus, in Greek drama

(Encyclopedia)chorus, in the drama of ancient Greece. Originally the chorus seems to have arisen from the singing of the dithyramb, and the dithyrambic chorus allegedly became a true dramatic chorus when Thespis in...

exorcism

(Encyclopedia)exorcism ĕkˈsôrsĭzˌəm [key], ritual act of driving out evil demons or spirits from places, persons, or things in which they are thought to dwell. It occurs both in primitive societies and in the...

Rutherford, Samuel

(Encyclopedia)Rutherford, Samuel, 1600–1661, Scottish clergyman. His Exercitationes apologeticae pro divina gratia (1636), urging a Calvinist view of grace against Arminianism (see under Arminius, Jacobus), cause...

Ryan, Kay

(Encyclopedia)Ryan, Kay, 1945–, American poet, b. San Jose, Calif., grad. Univ. of California at Los Angeles (B.A., 1967; M.A., 1968). She taught remedial English in a Marin co. community college for more than 30...

trunkfish

(Encyclopedia)trunkfish, any member of a family of fishes, Ostraciidae, also called boxfishes, that have short triangular bodies covered by firmly united hexagonal bony plates. Only the jaw, the bases of the fins, ...

Quebec Act, 1774

(Encyclopedia)Quebec Act, 1774, passed by the British Parliament to institute a permanent administration in Canada replacing the temporary government created at the time of the Proclamation of 1763. It gave the Fre...

pseudocoelomate

(Encyclopedia)pseudocoelomate so͞oˌdōsēˈləmātˌ [key], any of a group of invertebrates with a three-layered body that has a fluid-filled body cavity (pseudocoelom) between the endoderm and the mesoderm (the ...

vancomycin

(Encyclopedia)vancomycin vănˌkōmīˈsĭn [key], antibiotic resembling penicillin in the way it acts. It is derived from the bacterium Streptomyces orientalis, which was isolated from soil of India and Indonesia....