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turquoise

(Encyclopedia)turquoise, hydrous phosphate of aluminum and copper, Al2(OH)3PO4·H2O+Cu, used as a gem. It occurs rarely in crystal form, but is usually cryptocrystalline. Turquoise is opaque and has a waxy luster; ...

Bradford, city, England

(Encyclopedia)Bradford, city and metropolitan borough, N central England, on a small tributary of the Aire River. It is a center of the worsted industry, which dates ...

breakwater

(Encyclopedia)breakwater, offshore structure to protect a harbor from wave energy or deflect currents. When it also serves as a pier, it is called a quay; when covered by a roadway it is called a mole. In the Unite...

Breshkovsky, Catherine

(Encyclopedia)Breshkovsky, Catherine brĕshkôfˈskē [key], 1844–1934, Russian revolutionary, called “the little grandmother (babushka) of the Russian Revolution.” Of a noble family, she began on her father'...

tendril

(Encyclopedia)tendril, slender, sensitive structure of many climbing plants that by a response to contact (see auxin) supports the plant. Tendrils are modified stems, leaves, or leaf parts or roots. Most young tend...

Bedford, cities, United States

(Encyclopedia)Bedford. 1 City (2020 pop. 13,068), seat of Lawrence co., S Ind.; inc. 1889. Bedford limestone, quarried there and shipped all over the world, was ...

sod house

(Encyclopedia)sod house, house with walls made of strips of sod laid horizontally in courses like bricks. Sod houses were common in the frontier days on the western plains of the United States, where wood and stone...

Solovetski Islands

(Encyclopedia)Solovetski or Solovetsky Islands sələvyĕtˈskē [key], archipelago, c.150 sq mi (390 sq km), N European Russia, in the White Sea at the entrance of Onega Bay. A monastery, built in the first half o...

rood

(Encyclopedia)rood ro͞od [key], crucifix mounted above the entrance to the chancel and flanked by large figures of the Virgin and St. John, an almost invariable feature in the 14th- and 15th-century European churc...

San Angelo

(Encyclopedia)San Angelo săn ănˈjəlō [key], city (1990 pop. 84,474), seat of Tom Green co., W Tex., where two forks join to form the Concho River; laid out 1869, inc. 1903. It is an important wool and mohair m...