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Inside Passage

(Encyclopedia)Inside Passage, natural, protected waterway, c.950 mi (1,530 km) long, threading through the Alexander Archipelago off the coast of British Columbia and SE Alaska. From Seattle, Wash., to Skagway, Ala...

ablaut

(Encyclopedia)ablaut äpˈlout [key] [Ger.,=off-sound], in inflection, vowel variation (as in English sing, sang, sung, song) caused by former differences in syllabic accent. In a prehistoric period the correspondi...

Langevin, Paul

(Encyclopedia)Langevin, Paul läNzhəvăNˈ [key], 1872–1946, French physicist and chemist. He was professor of experimental physics at the Collège de France from 1909 and at the École municipale de Physique e...

Kitty Hawk

(Encyclopedia)Kitty Hawk or Kittyhawk, part of an offshore sandbar on Cape Hatteras, NE N.C., E of Albemarle Sound. Nearby is Kill Devil Hill, where the Wright brothers experimented successfully (1900–1903) with ...

Brantford

(Encyclopedia)Brantford, city, S Ont., Canada, on the Grand River. It is a leading manufacturing city, noted particularly for its large farm implement factories. The ...

castrato

(Encyclopedia)castrato kăsträˈtō [key] [Ital.,=castrated], a male singer with an artificially created soprano or alto voice, the result of castration in boyhood. The combination of the larynx of a youth and the...

Swanson, Gloria

(Encyclopedia)Swanson, Gloria, 1899–1983, American movie actress, b. Chicago. Swanson began her film career in 1913, displaying an elegant comedic style in a series of films for director Cecil B. DeMille. Finance...

Rye, city, United States

(Encyclopedia)Rye, city (1990 pop. 14,936), Westchester co., SE N.Y., a suburb of New York City, on Long Island Sound; settled 1660, inc. as a city 1942. It is chiefly residential, with a cancer-research center, a ...

Block, Adriaen

(Encyclopedia)Block, Adriaen, fl. 1610–24, Dutch navigator. Eager to establish a fur trade with the Native Americans, Amsterdam merchants sent (1613) Block and another Dutch navigator to explore the region discov...

Bridgeport

(Encyclopedia)Bridgeport, city (2020 pop. 148,654), Fairfield co., SW Conn., on Long Island Sound; inc. 1836. Long a chief industrial city in Connecticut, it makes el...