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columbine, in botany

(Encyclopedia)columbine kŏlˈəmbīn [key], any plant of the genus Aquilegia, temperate-zone perennials of the family Ranunculaceae (buttercup family), popular both as wildflowers and as garden flowers. Columbines...

archangel, in religion

(Encyclopedia)archangel ärkˈānjəl [key], chief angel. They are four to seven in number. Sometimes specific functions are ascribed to them. The four best known in Christian tradition are Michael, Gabriel, Raphae...

naturalism, in art

(Encyclopedia)naturalism, in art, a tendency toward strict adherence to the physical appearance of nature and rejection of ideal forms. Artists as diverse as Velázquez, J. F. Millet, and Monet, have followed natur...

corona, in astronomy

(Encyclopedia)corona, luminous envelope surrounding the sun, outside the chromosphere. Its density is less than one billionth that of the earth's atmosphere. The corona is visible only at the time of totality durin...

firing

(Encyclopedia)firing, process of treating clay or other plastic ceramic materials with heat to produce a hard, durable but brittle material such as pottery. Primitive potters baked their clay in an open fire, but f...

space station

(Encyclopedia)space station or space platform, artificial earth satellite, usually manned, that is placed in a fixed orbit and can serve as a base for astronomical observations; zero-gravity materials processing; s...

eclecticism, in philosophy

(Encyclopedia)eclecticism ĭklĕkˈtĭsĭzˌəm [key] [Gr. eklektikos=to choose], in philosophy, the selection of elements from different systems of thought, without regard to possible contradictions between the sy...

earth, in chemistry

(Encyclopedia)earth, in chemistry, metallic oxide not readily reducible by chemical means, e.g., alkaline earths, rare earths, and alumina. The name is also applied to certain absorbent clays, e.g., fuller's earth,...

lake, in dyeing

(Encyclopedia)lake, in dyeing, an insoluble pigment formed by the reaction between an organic dye and a mordant. The color of a lake depends upon the mordant as well as the dye used. Generally, lakes are not as col...

phase, in astronomy

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Phases of the moon phase, in astronomy, the measure of how much of the illuminated surface of a planet or satellite can be seen from a point at a distance from that body; the term is most ofte...