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raven

(Encyclopedia)raven, common name for the largest members of the family Corvidae (crow family), ranging throughout the arctic and temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The common raven, Corvus corax, is a gl...

avocado

(Encyclopedia)avocado äˈvəkäˈdo, ăvˈ– [key], tropical American broad-leaved evergreen tree of the genus Persea of the family Lauraceae (laurel family). The fruit, called avocado, alligator pear, or, in Spa...

ovenbird

(Encyclopedia)ovenbird, common name for a member of the family Furnariidae, primitive passerine birds, which build elaborate, domed nests of clay or dig tunnels in the ground to lay their eggs. Ovenbirds are most c...

corporal punishment

(Encyclopedia)corporal punishment, physical chastisement of an offender. At one extreme it includes the death penalty (see capital punishment), but the term usually refers to punishments like flogging, caning, muti...

hummingbird

(Encyclopedia)hummingbird, common name for members of the family Trochilidae, small, strictly New World birds, related to the swifts, and found chiefly in the mountains of South America. Hummingbirds vary in size f...

Mishna

(Encyclopedia)Mishna mĭshˈnə [key], in Judaism, codified collection of Oral Law—legal interpretations of portions of the biblical books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy and other legal material. ...

Dominic, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Dominic, Saint dŏmˈənĭk [key], 1170?–1221, Castilian churchman, named Domingo de Guzmán, founder of the Dominicans. He studied at Palencia and became a canon, then prior of canons, of the cathe...

fig

(Encyclopedia)fig, name for members of the genus Ficus of the family Moraceae (mulberry family). This large genus contains some 800 species of widely varied tropical vines (some of which are epiphytic); shrubs; and...

tuatara

(Encyclopedia)tuatara –tāˈrə [key], lizardlike reptile, Sphenodon punctatus, last survivor of the reptilian order Rhynchocephalia, which flourished in the early Mesozoic era before the rise of the dinosaurs. A...

World Council of Churches

(Encyclopedia)World Council of Churches, an international, interdenominational organization of most major Protestant, Anglican, and Eastern Orthodox Christian churches; founded in Amsterdam in 1948, its headquarter...
 

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