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executive order

(Encyclopedia)executive order, in the United States, official document initiated and signed by the president containing directives concerning how the executive branch shall carry out its responsibilities under the ...

clergy

(Encyclopedia)clergy: see ministry; monasticism; orders, holy. ...

harmonic

(Encyclopedia)harmonic. 1 Physical term describing the vibration in segments of a sound-producing body (see sound). A string vibrates simultaneously in its whole length and in segments of halves, thirds, fourths, e...

tonsure

(Encyclopedia)tonsure tŏnˈshər [key] [Lat.,=to shave], formerly, practice in some Christian churches of cutting some of the hair from the scalp of clerics. In the West the tonsure consisted of a circular patch o...

fakir

(Encyclopedia)fakir fäkērˈ, fāˈkər [key], [Arab.,=poverty], in Islam, usually an initiate in a Sufi order. The title fakir is borne with the understanding that poverty is the need to be in relation to God. Th...

goatsbeard

(Encyclopedia)goatsbeard, common name for plants of the genus Tragopogon (see salsify) of the family Asteraceae (aster family) and of the genus Aruncus of the family Rosaceae (rose family), related to the spiraeas....

commercial paper

(Encyclopedia)commercial paper, type of short-term negotiable instrument, usually an unsecured promissory note, that calls for the payment of money at a specified date. Because it is not backed by collateral, comme...

Capuchins

(Encyclopedia)Capuchins kăpˈyo͞ochĭnz [key] [Ital.,=hooded ones], Roman Catholic religious order of friars, one of the independent orders of Franciscans, officially the Friars Minor Capuchin [Lat. abbr., O.M.Ca...

sacrament

(Encyclopedia)sacrament [Lat.,=something holy], an outward sign of something sacred. In Christianity, a sacrament is commonly defined as having been instituted by Jesus and consisting of a visible sign of invisible...

friar

(Encyclopedia)friar [Lat. frater=brother], member of certain Roman Catholic religious orders, notably, the Dominicans, Franciscans, Carmelites, and Augustinians. Although a general form of address in the New Testam...