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violin

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Violins and viols violin, family of stringed musical instruments having wooden bodies whose backs and fronts are slightly convex, the fronts pierced by two ƒ-shaped resonance holes. The instr...

Dakar

(Encyclopedia)Dakar dəkärˈ, dä– [key], city (1988 pop. 672,991), capital of Senegal, W Senegal, on Cape Verde Peninsula, a port on the Atlantic Ocean. Situated in a market-gardening region, Dakar is Senegal's...

Falun Gong

(Encyclopedia)Falun Gong dä-fä [key], movement promoting physical and spiritual well-being that became widespread China in the 1990s. Founded in 1992 by Li Hongzhi (1951?–), a former Changchun grain clerk, it c...

Handke, Peter

(Encyclopedia)Handke, Peter pāˈtər häntˈkə [key], 1942–, Austrian novelist and playwright. His controversial, avant-garde works often reflect his ironic sense of the constricting limitations of language and...

helicopter

(Encyclopedia)helicopter, type of aircraft in which lift is obtained by means of one or more power-driven horizontal propellers called rotors. When the rotor of a helicopter turns it produces reaction torque which ...

Millay, Edna St. Vincent

(Encyclopedia)Millay, Edna St. Vincent mĭlāˈ [key], 1892–1950, American poet, b. Rockland, Maine, grad. Vassar College, 1917. One of the most popular poets of her era, Millay was admired as much for the bohemi...

Abu Dhabi

(Encyclopedia)Abu Dhabi äˈbo͞o ᵺäˈbē, zä–, dä– [key], Arab. Abu Zabi, sheikhdom, c.26,000 sq mi (67,300 sq km), part of the federation of seven United Arab Emirate...

British Library

(Encyclopedia)British Library, national library of Great Britain, located in London; one of the world's great libraries. Long a part of the British Museum, the library collection originated in 1753 when the governm...

snorkel

(Encyclopedia)snorkel, tube through which a submarine or diver can draw air while underwater. When in use, the top of the snorkel tube extends above the water surface into the air. The first snorkels were probably ...

Scarlatti, Alessandro

(Encyclopedia)Scarlatti, Alessandro älĕs-sänˈdrō skärlätˈtē [key], 1660–1725, Italian composer. He may have studied with Carissimi in Rome, where his first opera was produced in 1679. In 1684 he went to ...