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Carey, Mathew

(Encyclopedia)Carey, Mathew, 1760–1839, American publisher, bookseller, and economist, b. Dublin. In his Dublin journal he violently attacked English rule of Ireland, was imprisoned for a month, fled to France, w...

irrigation

(Encyclopedia)irrigation, in agriculture, artificial watering of the land. Although used chiefly in regions with annual rainfall of less than 20 in. (51 cm), it is also used in wetter areas to grow certain crops, e...

statistical mechanics

(Encyclopedia)statistical mechanics, quantitative study of systems consisting of a large number of interacting elements, such as the atoms or molecules of a solid, liquid, or gas, or the individual quanta of light ...

Gottwald, Klement

(Encyclopedia)Gottwald, Klement klāməntˈ gôtˈvält [key], 1896–1953, Czechoslovak Communist leader, b. Moravia. After World War I he helped found the Czechoslovak Communist party and served on the party's ce...

Guadalcanal

(Encyclopedia)Guadalcanal gwädəlkənălˈ [key], volcanic island, c.2,510 sq mi (6,500 sq km), South Pacific, ...

geologic timescale

(Encyclopedia)CE5 geologic timescale, a chronological scale of earth's history used to measure the relative or absolute age of any part of geologic time. Of the numerous timescales, the most common is based on g...

Cotonou

(Encyclopedia)Cotonou kōtōno͞oˈ [key], city, capital of Atlantique prov., S Benin, on the Gulf of Guinea. ...

chicle

(Encyclopedia)chicle chĭkˈəl [key], name for the gum obtained from the latex of the sapodilla tree (Manilkara zapota), a tropical American evergreen. The sapodilla (known also by many other common names) is wide...

sertão

(Encyclopedia)sertão sərˈtouN [key] [Port.,=backlands], semiarid hinterland of NE Brazil; c.250,000 sq mi (647,500 sq km). Its characteristic landscape is the caatinga, or thorny scrub forest. The chief occupati...

São Francisco

(Encyclopedia)São Francisco souN frəsēshˈko͝o [key], river, c.1,800 mi (2,900 km) long, rising in the Serra de Canastra, SW Minas Gerais state, Brazil, and flowing northeast, then southeast through the sertão...