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molybdenum

(Encyclopedia)molybdenum məlĭbˈdənəm [key] [Gr.,=leadlike], metallic chemical element; symbol Mo; at. no. 42; at. wt. 95.96; m.p. about 2,617℃; b.p. about 4,612℃; sp. gr. 10.22 at 20℃; valence +2, +3, +4...

shaman

(Encyclopedia)shaman shäˈmən, shāˈ–, shăˈ– [key], religious practitioner in various, generally small-scale societies who is believed to be able to diagnose, cure, and sometimes cause illness because of a...

suicide

(Encyclopedia)suicide [Lat.,=self-killing], the deliberate taking of one's own life. Suicide may be compulsory, prescribed by custom or enjoined by the authorities, usually as an alternative to death at the hands o...

debt, public

(Encyclopedia)debt, public, indebtedness of a central government expressed in money terms, often referred to as national debt. The debt is computed differently by nearly every nation. Some authorities exclude all g...

criminal law

(Encyclopedia)criminal law, the branch of law that defines crimes, treats of their nature, and provides for their punishment. A tort is a civil wrong committed against an individual; a crime, on the other hand, is ...

Berothah

(Encyclopedia)Berothah bērōˈthə [key], in the Bible, city of Syria. Berothai may be the same. ...

associative law

(Encyclopedia)associative law, in mathematics, law holding that for a given operation combining three quantities, two at a time, the initial pairing is arbitrary; e.g., using the operation of addition, the numbers ...

navigable water

(Encyclopedia)navigable water, in the broadest sense, a stream or body of water that can be used for commercial transportation. When, as in the early common law, the term is restricted to waters affected by tides, ...

iron lung

(Encyclopedia)iron lung, device used to maintain artificial respiration over an extended period of time. Before the successful vaccination program against poliomyelitis, it was used mostly in treatment of that dise...

irritable bowel syndrome

(Encyclopedia)irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), condition characterized by constipation, diarrhea, or alternating constipation and diarrhea in the absence of any disease process. It is usually accompanied by abdomina...
 

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