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primary

(Encyclopedia)primary, in the United States, a preliminary election in which the candidate of a party is nominated directly by the voters. The establishment of the primary system resulted from the demand to elimina...

transformer

(Encyclopedia)transformer, electrical device used to transfer an alternating current or voltage from one electric circuit to another by means of electromagnetic induction. The simplest type of transformer consists ...

Byrne, Jane

(Encyclopedia)Byrne, Jane, 1934–2014, American politician, b. Chicago as Margaret Jane Burke. She was Chicago's consumer sales commissioner (1968–77) under Mayor Richard Daley before she became the first woman ...

Nestor, Russian chronicler

(Encyclopedia)Nestor nĕsˈtər [key], d. 1115?, Russian chronicler. A monk in a Kiev monastery, he wrote a life of saints Boris and Gleb and of the prior of his monastery St. Feodosi. Until recently the authorship...

ignition

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Ignition system ignition, apparatus for igniting a combustible mixture. The German engineer Nikolaus A. Otto, in his first gas engine, used flame ignition; another method was heating a metal t...

defense mechanism

(Encyclopedia)defense mechanism, in psychoanalysis, any of a variety of unconscious personality reactions which the ego uses to protect the conscious mind from threatening feelings and perceptions. Sigmund Freud fi...

malnutrition

(Encyclopedia)malnutrition, insufficiency of one or more nutritional elements necessary for health and well-being. Primary malnutrition is caused by the lack of essential foodstuffs—usually vitamins, minerals, or...

Ferraro, Geraldine Anne

(Encyclopedia)Ferraro, Geraldine Anne fərärˈō [key], 1935–2011, American political leader, b. Newburgh, N.Y., grad. Marymount College (1956), Fordham Law School (1960). A Democrat from Queens, N.Y., she began...

Longmont

(Encyclopedia)Longmont, city (1990 pop. 51,555), Boulder co., N Colo.; inc. 1885. It is a trade and processing center for a rich farm area irrigated by the Colorado–Big Thompson project. Vitamins, primary metal p...

Bend

(Encyclopedia)Bend, city (2020 pop. 99,178), seat of Deschutes co., W central Oregon, on the Deschutes River, at the eastern foot of the Cascade Range; inc. 1904. Lum...