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Pentecost

(Encyclopedia)Pentecost pĕnˈtəkôst [key] [Gr.,=fiftieth], important Jewish and Christian feast. The Jewish feast of Pentecost, in Hebrew Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks, one of the three pilgrimage festivals, arose...

Managua

(Encyclopedia)Managua mänäˈgwä [key], city (1995 pop. 819,731), W Nicaragua, capital and largest city of Nicaragua, on the southern shore of Lake Managua. It is the commercial and industrial center of the count...

trombone

(Encyclopedia)trombone [Ital.,=large trumpet], brass wind musical instrument of cylindrical bore, twice bent on itself, having a sliding section that lengthens or shortens it and thus regulates the pitch. The desce...

trumpet

(Encyclopedia)trumpet, brass wind musical instrument of part cylindrical, part conical bore, in the shape of a flattened loop and having three piston valves to regulate the pitch. Its origin is ancient; records of ...

ballistics

(Encyclopedia)ballistics bəlĭsˈtĭks [key], science of projectiles. Interior ballistics deals with the propulsion and the motion of a projectile within a gun or firing device. Its problems include the ignition a...

San Jose scale

(Encyclopedia)San Jose scale, common name for a scale insect, Aspidiotus perniciosus, introduced from China into San Jose, Calif., c.1870 on nursery stock. The insect has since spread throughout much of the United ...

hurricane

(Encyclopedia)CE5 View into the eye of a hurricane showing the structure of the surrounding cloud wall hurricane, tropical cyclone in which winds attain speeds greater than 74 mi (119 km) per hr. Wind speeds gu...

Native American music

(Encyclopedia)Native American music. The music of Native North Americans is primarily a vocal art, usually choral, although some nations favor solo singing. Native American music is entirely melodic; there is no ha...

Oakland

(Encyclopedia)Oakland, city (1990 pop. 372,242), seat of Alameda co., W Calif., on the eastern side of San Francisco Bay; inc. 1852. Together with San Francisco and San Jose, the city comprises the fourth largest m...

orientation

(Encyclopedia)orientation, in architecture, the disposition of the parts of a building with reference to the points of the compass. From remote antiquity the traditional belief in the efficacy of religious ceremoni...