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Webster

(Encyclopedia)Webster, town (1990 pop. 16,196), Worcester co., S Mass., near the Conn. line; settled c.1713, set off from Dudley and Oxford and inc. 1832. The chief manufactures are clothing, lenses, fabrics, and t...

Medici, Italian family

(Encyclopedia)Medici mĕˈdĭchē, Ital. māˈdēchē [key], Italian family that directed the destinies of Florence from the 15th cent. until 1737. Of obscure origin, they rose to immense wealth as merchants and ba...

Miami, river, United States

(Encyclopedia)Miami mīămˈē, –ə [key] or Great Miami, river, c.160 mi (260 km) long, formed in W Ohio near Indian Lake and flowing generally SW past Dayton to the Ohio River at the Ind. line. The Miami River ...

Gera

(Encyclopedia)Gera gāˈrä [key], city, Thuringia, E Germany, on the White Elster River. It is an industri...

Gallup

(Encyclopedia)Gallup, town (2020 pop. 21,899), alt. 6,515 ft (1,986 m), seat of McKinley co., NW N.Mex., on the Puerco River near the Ariz. line; inc. 1891. It is a r...

Garcilaso de la Vega, Spanish poet

(Encyclopedia)Garcilaso de la Vega gärthēläˈsō ᵺā lä vāˈgä [key], 1503?–1536, lyric poet of the Spanish Golden Age, b. Toledo. Garcilaso, the embodiment of the cultured and gifted courtier, was chiefl...

Hoy

(Encyclopedia)Hoy, island, 13 mi (21 km) long and 6 mi (9.7 km) wide, off N Scotland, second largest of the Orkney Islands. It is located at the southwestern side of the Scapa Flow anchorage. Ward Hill (1,565 ft/47...

ecliptic coordinate system

(Encyclopedia)ecliptic coordinate system, an astronomical coordinate system in which the principal coordinate axis is the ecliptic, the apparent path of the sun through the heavens. The ecliptic poles are the two p...

Como, Lake

(Encyclopedia)Como, Lake kōˈmō [key], Ital. Lago di Como or Lario, c.56 sq mi (145 sq km), 30 mi (48 km) long and from 1⁄2 to 21⁄2 mi (0.8–4 km) wide, in Lombardy, N Italy. Lake Como is a natural widening ...

secant

(Encyclopedia)secant, in mathematics. 1 In geometry, a secant is a straight line cutting a curve or surface. If it intersects the curve in two different points, as in the secant of a circle, the segment of the seca...