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Pacino, Al

(Encyclopedia)Pacino, Al (Alberto Pacino) pəchēˈnō [key], 1940–, American actor, b. New York City, studied at the Herbert Berghof Studio and the Actors Studio, New York City. Known for his intense, finely tun...

hammerhead

(Encyclopedia)hammerhead, common name for a heavy-looking, heronlike bird, Scopus umbretta. Its plumage is brown with light and dark glossy, purplish streaks on the wings and body. It has short legs, partially webb...

John of the Cross, Saint

(Encyclopedia)John of the Cross, Saint, Span. Juan de la Cruz, 1542–91, Spanish mystic and poet, Doctor of the Church. His name was originally Juan de Yepes. He was a founder of the Discalced Carmelites and a clo...

Streep, Meryl

(Encyclopedia)Streep, Meryl, 1949–, American actress, b. Summit, N.J., as Mary Louise Streep. She attended Yale Drama School and appeared in many Broadway and off-Broadway productions during the early 1970s. Movi...

beluga

(Encyclopedia)beluga bəlo͞oˈgə [key] or white whale, small, toothed northern whale, Delphinapterus leucas. The beluga may reach a length of 19 ft (5.8 m) and a weight of 4,400 lb (2,000 kg). It has a small, rou...

Blakelock, Ralph Albert

(Encyclopedia)Blakelock, Ralph Albert, 1847–1919, American landscape painter, b. New York City. The son of a doctor, he was educated for a medical career but abandoned it for painting, in which he was largely sel...

Blücher, Gebhard Leberecht von

(Encyclopedia)Blücher, Gebhard Leberecht von gĕpˈhärt lāˈbərĕkht fən blüˈkhər [key], 1742–1819, Prussian field marshal, an outstanding military opponent of Napoleon I. An officer in the army of King F...

Bowen, Elizabeth

(Encyclopedia)Bowen, Elizabeth bōˈĭn [key], 1899–1973, Anglo-Irish novelist, b. Dublin. In impeccable prose she treated love and frustration through studies of complex psychological relationships. Her novels i...

art nouveau

(Encyclopedia)art nouveau ärˌ no͞ovōˈ [key], decorative-art movement centered in Western Europe. It began in the 1880s as a reaction against the historical emphasis of mid-19th-century art, but did not survive...

Miles, Nelson Appleton

(Encyclopedia)Miles, Nelson Appleton, 1839–1925, American army officer, b. near Westminster, Mass. In 1861, at the outbreak of the Civil War, he left his job in a Boston store and organized a company of volunteer...