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dice, in games and gambling

(Encyclopedia) dice [plural of die], small cubes used in games. They are usually made of ivory, bone, wood, plastic, or similar materials. The six sides are numbered by dots from 1 to 6, so placed…

Jiang Qing

(Encyclopedia) Jiang Qing or Chiang Ch'ingChiang Ch'ingboth: jyäng jĭng [key], 1914–91, Chinese Communist political leader, wife of Mao Zedong. Born Li Jinhai or Li Shumeng, she was later known as Li…

Schmidt, Helmut

(Encyclopedia) Schmidt, HelmutSchmidt, Helmuthĕlˈm&oobreve;t shmĭt [key], 1918–2015, German political leader, chancellor of West Germany (1974–82). After serving in World War II, he entered…

Sills, Beverly

(Encyclopedia) Sills, Beverly, 1929–2007, American coloratura soprano, b. Brooklyn, N.Y., as Belle Silverman. Her childhood career as a radio singer (when she was first nicknamed “Bubbles”) led to…

conjoined twins

(Encyclopedia) conjoined twins, congenitally united organisms that are complete or nearly complete individuals, historically known as Siamese twins. They develop from a single fertilized ovum that…

Gide, André

(Encyclopedia) Gide, AndréGide, AndréäNdrāˈ zhēd [key], 1869–1951, French writer. He established a reputation as an unconventional novelist with The Immoralist (1902, tr. 1930), a partly…

growing season

(Encyclopedia) growing season, period during which plant growth takes place. In temperate climates the growing season is limited by seasonal changes in temperature and is defined as the period…

Herder, Johann Gottfried von

(Encyclopedia) Herder, Johann Gottfried vonHerder, Johann Gottfried vonyōˈhän gôtˈfrēt fən hĕrˈdər [key], 1744–1803, German philosopher, critic, and clergyman, b. East Prussia. Herder was an…

dauphin, French title

(Encyclopedia) dauphindauphindôˈfĭn, Fr. dōfăNˈ [key] [Fr.,=dolphin], French title, borne first by the counts of Vienne (also called Viennois) and later by the eldest son of the king of France, or,…

drought

(Encyclopedia) drought, abnormally long period of insufficient rainfall. Drought cannot be defined in terms of inches of rainfall or number of days without rain, since it is determined by such…