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sake

(Encyclopedia)sake, alcoholic beverage made from rice by fermentation. Although sake is sometimes called rice wine, and can have a smooth body and be quite aromatic, it has a higher alcohol content and is produced ...

Steppe Geoglyphs

(Encyclopedia)Steppe Geoglyphs or Turgay Geoglyphs, ancient earthworks in Kostanay prov., N Kazakhstan. Located across the Turgay steppe, the more than 250 earthworks consist of squares, crosses, circles, lines, an...

union, labor

(Encyclopedia)union, labor, association of workers for the purpose of improving their economic status and working conditions through collective bargaining with employers. Historically there have been two chief type...

Diniz

(Encyclopedia)Diniz, Port. Dinis dēnēshˈ [key], 1261–1325, king of Portugal (1279–1325), son and successor of Alfonso III. Like his grandfather, Alfonso X of Castile, whose legal works he had translated into...

Dwight, Timothy, 1752–1817, American clergyman, author, and educator

(Encyclopedia)Dwight, Timothy, 1752–1817, American clergyman, author, educator, b. Northampton, Mass., grad. Yale, 1769. He renounced legal for theological studies and after 1783 was pastor for 12 years of a Cong...

Copernicus, Nicholas

(Encyclopedia)Copernicus, Nicholas kōpûrˈnĭkəs [key], Pol. Mikotaj Kopérnik, 1473–1543, Polish astronomer. After studying astronomy at the Univ. of Kraków, he spent a number of years in Italy studying vari...

jai alai

(Encyclopedia)jai alai hīˈlīˌ [key], handball-like game of Spanish Basque origin. It is also called pelota. Jai alai is played on a three-walled court with a hard rubber ball that must be hurled against the fro...

nullity of marriage

(Encyclopedia)nullity of marriage, in law, an unlawful marriage that is either void or voidable because of conditions existing at the time of the marriage. A bigamous or incestuous marriage, for example, is void, a...

Pennsylvania Railroad

(Encyclopedia)Pennsylvania Railroad, former U.S. transportation company; inc. 1846 by the Pennsylvania legislature. It opened in 1854 as a single-track line between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Beginning in 1857, t...

Burnet, David Gouverneur

(Encyclopedia)Burnet, David Gouverneur gŭvˌəno͝orˈ bûrˈnĭt [key], 1788–1870, provisional president of Texas (1836), b. Newark, N.J.; son of William Burnet (1730–91). He went to Texas c.1817, and his leg...