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Miró, Joan

(Encyclopedia)Miró, Joan zhōänˈ mērōˈ [key], 1893–1983, Spanish surrealist painter. After studying in Barcelona, Miró went to Paris in 1919. In the 1920s he came into contact with cubism and surrealism. H...

Portsmouth, city, England

(Encyclopedia)Portsmouth, city and unitary authority (2011 pop. 205,056), S England, on Spithead Channel. The city includes Portsea (naval station), Southsea (residential district and resort), and the old town of P...

Hades

(Encyclopedia)Hades hāˈdēz [key], in Greek and Roman religion and mythology. 1 The ruler of the underworld: see Pluto. 2 The world of the dead, ruled by Pluto and Persephone, located either underground or in the...

Cabral de Melo Neto, João

(Encyclopedia)Cabral de Melo Neto, João dĭ māˈlü nāˈtü [key], 1920–99, Brazilian poet and dramatist. Raised on his family's sugarcane plantation, he entered the foreign service in 1945 and retired in 1990...

Rasmussen, Knud Johan Victor

(Encyclopedia)Rasmussen, Knud Johan Victor kəno͞otˈ yōˈhän vĭkˈtôr räsˈmo͝osən [key], 1879–1933, Danish arctic explorer and ethnologist. Born in Greenland of Eskimo ancestry on his mother's side, he ...

fox, in zoology

(Encyclopedia)fox, carnivorous mammal of the dog family, found throughout most of the Northern Hemisphere. It has a pointed face, short legs, long, thick fur, and a tail about one half to two thirds as long as the ...

Nelson, Willie

(Encyclopedia)Nelson, Willie, 1933–, American country singer, guitarist, and songwriter, b. Abbott, Tex. Nelson began playing professionally at 10 and joined a western swing band as a teenager. In the 1960s he mo...

Pacino, Al

(Encyclopedia)Pacino, Al (Alberto Pacino) pəchēˈnō [key], 1940–, American actor, b. New York City, studied at the Herbert Berghof Studio and the Actors Studio, New York City. Known for his intense, finely tun...

mandrake

(Encyclopedia)mandrake, plant of the family Solanaceae (nightshade family), the source of a narcotic much used during the Middle Ages as a pain-killer and perhaps the subject of more superstition than any other pla...

solenodon

(Encyclopedia)solenodon sōlēˈnədŏn [key], venomous insectivorous mammal, genus Solenodon, found in the West Indies. Related to moles and shrews, the solenodon resembles a rat with an elongated snout and coarse...