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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...

recitative

(Encyclopedia)recitative rĕsˌĭtətēvˈ [key], musical declamation for solo voice, used in opera and oratorio for dialogue and for narration. Its development at the close of the 16th cent. made possible the rise...

O'Brien, William Smith

(Encyclopedia)O'Brien, William Smith, 1803–64, Irish revolutionary. He entered Parliament from Ireland in 1828 and worked for Catholic Emancipation, Irish poor relief, and state support of the Irish Catholic cler...

Paris, Declaration of

(Encyclopedia)Paris, Declaration of, 1856, agreement concerning the rules of maritime warfare, issued at the Congress of Paris. It was the first major attempt to codify the international law of the sea. Conflicting...

Belmondo, Jean-Paul

(Encyclopedia)Belmondo, Jean-Paul zhäN-pōl bĕlmôNdōˈ [key], 1933–, French film actor, b. Neuilly-sur-Seine, studied Paris Conservatory. Belmondo made his film debut in 1957, but first gained fame in Breathl...

will, in philosophy and psychology

(Encyclopedia)will, in philosophy and psychology, term used to describe that which is alleged to stimulate the motivation of purposeful activity. It is characteristic of the will that it can be observed only in one...

bastard

(Encyclopedia)bastard, person born out of wedlock whose legal status is illegitimacy. In civil law countries and in about half the states of the United States, the union of the parents in marriage after birth makes...

stethoscope

(Encyclopedia)stethoscope stĕthˈəskōpˌ [key] [Gr.,=chest viewer], instrument that enables the physican to hear the sounds made by the heart, the lungs, and various other organs. The earliest stethoscope, devis...

Brutus, Dennis Vincent

(Encyclopedia)Brutus, Dennis Vincent, 1924–2009, South African poet, b. Salisbury, Rhodesia (now Harare, Zimbabwe). Brutus grew up in South Africa and received (1947) his B.A. from the Univ. of Fort Hare in Alice...

verb

(Encyclopedia)verb, part of speech typically used to indicate an action. English verbs are inflected for person, number, tense and partially for mood; compound verbs formed with auxiliaries (e.g., be, can, have, do...