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Reformed churches

(Encyclopedia)Reformed churches, in a general sense, all Protestant churches that claim a beginning in the Reformation. In more restricted and more usual historical usage, Reformed churches are those Protestant chu...

bee balm

(Encyclopedia)bee balm, name for several herbs, especially Melissa officinalis and Monarda didyma, both typical perennials of the family Labiatae (mint family) named for their fragrance, attractive to bees and humm...

pocket mouse

(Encyclopedia)pocket mouse, small jumping rodent of W North America and as far south as N South America. More closely related to the squirrel than the true mouse, the pocket mouse gets its name from the fur-lined c...

Mound Builders

(Encyclopedia)Mound Builders, in North American archaeology, name given to those people who built mounds in a large area from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico and from the Mississippi River to the Appalachian ...

alternating current

(Encyclopedia)alternating current, abbr. AC, a flow of electric charge that undergoes periodic reverses in direction. In North America ordinary household current alternates at a frequency of 60 times per second. Se...

Mar del Plata

(Encyclopedia)Mar del Plata mär ᵺĕl pläˈtä [key], city (1991 pop. 519,707), E central Argentina, on the Atlantic Ocean. It is one of the most popular seaside resorts in South America. Fishing and fish proces...

Larkin, Oliver Waterman

(Encyclopedia)Larkin, Oliver Waterman, 1896–1970, American art historian, b. Medford, Mass. Larkin taught at Smith from 1924 to 1964. His major work is Art and Life in America (1949; Pulitzer Prize in history, 19...

Wakashan

(Encyclopedia)Wakashan wäkăshˈən, wôˈkəshänˌ, –shônˌ [key], branch of the Algonquian-Wakashan linguistic family, or stock, of North America and spoken by Native Americans of W Canada and the state of W...

Brown, Olympia

(Encyclopedia)Brown, Olympia, 1835–1926, American Universalist minister and woman-suffrage leader, b. Prairie Ronde, Mich.; grad. Antioch College, 1860, and the theological school of St. Lawrence Univ., 1863. She...

Uto-Aztecan

(Encyclopedia)Uto-Aztecan yo͞oˈtō-ăztĕkˈən [key], branch of the Aztec-Tanoan linguistic stock. The languages belonging to this stock are spoken in North and Central America. See Native American languages. ...