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black widow

(Encyclopedia)black widow, poisonous spider of the genus Latrodectus, found throughout North and South America and common in the SW United States. The name derives from the fact that the female, like those of many ...

swim bladder

(Encyclopedia)swim bladder, large, thin-walled sac in some fishes that may function in several ways, e.g., as a buoyant float, a sound producer and receptor, and a respiratory organ. The swim bladder, or air bladde...

sports medicine

(Encyclopedia)sports medicine, branch of medicine concerned with physical fitness and with the treatment and prevention of injuries and other disorders related to sports. Knee, leg, back, and shoulder injuries; sti...

squash tennis

(Encyclopedia)squash tennis, game played on a four-walled court, similar in dimensions to the court on which squash racquets is played. The two games, however, differ in equipment, rules, and play. The squash tenni...

speech defect

(Encyclopedia)speech defect, any condition that interferes with the mental formation of words or their physical production. Speech defects in children generally become apparent in the early school years. Speech pro...

pneumothorax

(Encyclopedia)pneumothorax no͞omōthôrˈăks [key], collapse of a lung with escape of air into the pleural cavity between the lung and the chest wall. The cause may be traumatic (e.g., gunshot or stab wound), spo...

probate

(Encyclopedia)probate prōˈbāt [key], in law, the certification by a court that a will is valid. Probate, which is governed by various statutes in the several states of the United States, is required before the w...

airmail

(Encyclopedia)airmail, transport of mail by airplanes. Demonstration flights that showed the feasibility of carrying mail by air were made in Great Britain and in the United States in 1911. In the United States, af...

Minot, Laurence

(Encyclopedia)Minot, Laurence, fl. 1333–52, English poet. He was the author of fervently patriotic war poems about Halidon Hill, the siege of Calais, and other battles. Probably a Yorkshireman, he may have been a...

pollination

(Encyclopedia)pollination, transfer of pollen from the male reproductive organ (stamen or staminate cone) to the female reproductive organ (pistil or pistillate cone) of the same or of another flower or cone. Polli...