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Antarctica

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Antarctica ăntärkˈtĭkə, –ärˈtĭkə [key], the fifth largest continent, c.5,500,000 sq mi (14,245,000 sq km), asymmetrically centered on the South Pole and almost entirely within the An...

Wisconsin, state, United States

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Wisconsin wĭskŏnˈsən, –sĭn [key], upper midwestern state of the United States. It is bounded by Lake Superior and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, from which it is divided in part by the...

Zambia

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Zambia zămˈbēə [key], officially Republic of Zambia, republic (2015 est. pop. 15,066,000), 290,584 sq mi (752,614 sq km), central Africa. It borders on Congo (Kinshasa) in the north, on Tan...

evolution

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Plant and animal evolution [Modified from Alfred Gunderson in Brooklyn Botanic Garden Leaflets, Ser. 18, No. 4 (1930); used by permission.] evolution, concept that embodies the belief that ex...

mystery

(Encyclopedia)mystery or mystery story, literary genre in which the cause (or causes) of a mysterious happening, often a crime, is gradually revealed by the hero or heroine; this is accomplished through a mixture o...

Labour party

(Encyclopedia)Labour party, British political party, one of the two dominant parties in Great Britain since World War I. Harold Wilson, who became leader on Gaitskell's death in 1963, was able to lead the party t...

Jamaica

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Jamaica jəmāˈkə [key], independent state within the Commonwealth (2015 est. pop. 2,872,000), 4,232 sq mi (10,962 sq km), coextensive with the island of Jamaica, West Indies, S of Cuba and W...

scholasticism

(Encyclopedia)scholasticism skōlăsˈtĭsĭzəm [key], philosophy and theology of Western Christendom in the Middle Ages. Virtually all medieval philosophers of any significance were theologians, and their philoso...

Obama, Barack

(Encyclopedia)Obama, Barack (Barack Hussein Obama 2d), bəräkˈ ho͞osānˈ ōbäˈmə [key], 1961–, 44th president of the United States (2009–17), b. Honolulu, grad. Columbia (B.A. 1983), Harvard Law School ...

Civil War, in U.S. history

(Encyclopedia)Civil War, in U.S. history, conflict (1861–65) between the Northern states (the Union) and the Southern states that seceded from the Union and formed the Confederacy. It is generally known in the So...