Skip this Advertisement

A-Z Browse

  • Canyon Diablo (crater, Arizona, United States)
    rimmed, bowl-shaped pit produced by a large meteorite in the rolling plain of the Canyon Diablo region, 19 miles (30 km) west of Winslow, Arizona, U.S. The crater is 4,000 feet (1,200 metres) in diameter and about 600 feet (180 metres) deep inside its rim, which rises nearly 200 feet (60 metres) above the plain. Drillings reveal undisturbed rock beneath 700–800 feet (213...
  • Canyon Lands (plateau, United States)
    ...feet (3,353 m) in central Utah. The northernmost section is the Uinta Basin, a dissected plateau abutting the Uinta Mountains in northeastern Utah and northwestern Colorado. South of it is the Canyon Lands, so named because it is a plateau dissected by many deep canyons. It has an indefinite border with the Navajo section, a region with fewer, less deep canyons in Arizona, New Mexico, and......
  • canyon live oak (plant)
    A member of the white oak group, the canyon live oak (Q. chrysolepsis), a timber tree occasionally more than 27 m tall, is often called goldencup oak for its egg-shaped acorns, each enclosed at the base in a yellow, woolly cup. The thick, leathery leaves remain on the tree three to four years....
  • canyon, submarine (geology)
    any of a class of narrow, steep-sided valleys cut into continental slopes. Submarine canyons are so called because they resemble river canyons on land....
  • Canyonlands National Park (park, United States)
    desert wilderness of water-eroded sandstone spires, canyons, and mesas, with Archaic Native American petroglyphs, in southeastern Utah, U.S., just southwest of Moab and Arches National Park. Established in 1964, it occupies an area of 527 square miles (1,365 square km) and surrounds the confluence of the Green and Colorado...
  • Canyons of Colorado (work by Powell)
    ...government to initiate land-utilization projects. During this period he published three major works. In Exploration of the Colorado River of the West and Its Tributaries (1875; rev. ed., Canyons of Colorado, 1895), he originated and formalized a number of concepts that became part of the standard working vocabulary of geology. His Introduction to the Study of Indian......
  • canzona (music)
    a genre of Italian instrumental music in the 16th and 17th centuries. In 18th- and 19th-century music, the term canzona refers to a lyrical song or songlike instrumental piece....
  • canzona francese (music)
    The instrumental canzona derived its form from the French polyphonic chanson known in Italy as canzon(a) francese; many early canzonas were instrumental arrangements of chansons, alternating between polyphonic and homophonic (based on chords) sections. Typically, the opening motif consisted of one long and two short notes of identical pitch. Although Italy remained the principal home of......
  • canzona villanesca (music)
    ...scholar, poet, and humanist Petrarch frequently used the canzona poetic form, and in the 16th century canzoni were often used as texts by madrigal composers. In the late 16th century, the term canzona or its diminutive, canzonetta, referred to polyphonic songs whose music and text were in a lighter vein than the madrigal. These include the canzoni villanesche......
  • canzone (poetry)
    Two of Cavalcanti’s poems are canzoni, a type of lyric derived from Provençal poetry, of which the most famous is “Donna mi prega” (“A Lady Asks Me”), a beautiful and complex philosophical analysis of love, the subject of many later commentaries. Others are sonnets and ballate (ballads), the latter type usually considered his best. One of his best-known ba...
  • canzone (music)
    a genre of Italian instrumental music in the 16th and 17th centuries. In 18th- and 19th-century music, the term canzona refers to a lyrical song or songlike instrumental piece....
  • Canzoneri, Tony (American boxer)
    American professional boxer who held world championships in the featherweight, lightweight, and junior-welterweight divisions....
  • canzonet (vocal music)
    form of 16th-century (c. 1565 and later) Italian vocal music. It was the most popular of the lighter secular forms of the period in Italy and England and perhaps in Germany as well. The canzonet follows the canzonetta poetic form; it is strophic (stanzaic) and often in an AABCC pattern. It is considered a refinement of the villanella (a three-voice form imitating rustic music) b...
  • canzonetta (vocal music)
    form of 16th-century (c. 1565 and later) Italian vocal music. It was the most popular of the lighter secular forms of the period in Italy and England and perhaps in Germany as well. The canzonet follows the canzonetta poetic form; it is strophic (stanzaic) and often in an AABCC pattern. It is considered a refinement of the villanella (a three-voice form imitating rustic music) b...
  • canzonette (vocal music)
    form of 16th-century (c. 1565 and later) Italian vocal music. It was the most popular of the lighter secular forms of the period in Italy and England and perhaps in Germany as well. The canzonet follows the canzonetta poetic form; it is strophic (stanzaic) and often in an AABCC pattern. It is considered a refinement of the villanella (a three-voice form imitating rustic music) b...
  • canzoni (poetry)
    Two of Cavalcanti’s poems are canzoni, a type of lyric derived from Provençal poetry, of which the most famous is “Donna mi prega” (“A Lady Asks Me”), a beautiful and complex philosophical analysis of love, the subject of many later commentaries. Others are sonnets and ballate (ballads), the latter type usually considered his best. One of his best-known ba...
  • canzoni (music)
    a genre of Italian instrumental music in the 16th and 17th centuries. In 18th- and 19th-century music, the term canzona refers to a lyrical song or songlike instrumental piece....
  • Canzoniere (work by Petrarch)
    ...from his “youthful errors” to his realization that “all worldly pleasure is a fleeting dream”; from his love for this world to his final trust in God. The theme of his Canzoniere (as the poems are usually known) therefore goes beyond the apparent subject matter, his love for Laura. For the first time in the history of the new poetry, lyrics are held together i...
  • canzoniere, Il (work by Saba)
    ...From age 17 Saba developed his interest in poetry while working as a clerk and a cabin boy and serving as a soldier in World War I. He established his reputation as a poet with the publication of Il canzoniere (1921; “The Songbook”), which was revised and enlarged in 1945, 1948, and 1961. Storia e cronistoria del canzoniere (1948; “History and Chronicle of the...
  • canzoniere, Il (work by Angiolieri)
    ...works have been collected in Sonetti burleschi e realistici dei primi due secoli (1920; “Comic and Realistic Sonnets of the First Two Centuries”) and in Il canzoniere (1946; “The Collection of Sonnets”), the latter a gathering of 150 poems. The Sonnets of a Handsome and Well-Mannered Rogue, translated by Thomas Chubb, appeared......
  • Canzonissima (Italian television show)
    ...revues for small cabarets and theatres. He and his wife, the actress Franca Rame, founded the Campagnia Dario Fo–Franca Rame in 1959, and their humorous sketches on the television show “Canzonissima” soon made them popular public personalities. They gradually developed an agitprop theatre of politics, often blasphemous and scatological, but rooted in the tradition of commed...
  • Cao Bang (province, Vietnam)
    ...revues for small cabarets and theatres. He and his wife, the actress Franca Rame, founded the Campagnia Dario Fo–Franca Rame in 1959, and their humorous sketches on the television show “Canzonissima” soon made them popular public personalities. They gradually developed an agitprop theatre of politics, often blasphemous and scatological, but rooted in the tradition of commed...
  • Cao Cao (Chinese general)
    one of the greatest of the generals at the end of the Han dynasty (206 bce–220 ce) of China....
  • Cao Dai (Vietnamese religion)
    (“High Tower,” a Taoist epithet for the supreme god), syncretist modern Vietnamese religious movement with a strongly nationalist political character. Cao Dai draws upon ethical precepts from Confucianism, occult practices from Taoism, theories of karma and rebirth from Buddhism, and a hierarchical organization (including a pope) from Roman Catholicism. Its panthe...
  • Cão, Diogo (Portuguese navigator)
    Portuguese navigator and explorer....
  • Cao Guojiu (Chinese mythology)
    in Chinese mythology, one of the Pa Hsien, the Eight Immortals of Taoism. Ts’ao is sometimes depicted in official robes and hat and carrying a tablet indicative of his rank and of his right to palace audiences. He was a man of exemplary character who often reminded a dissolute brother that though one can escape the laws of man, one cannot avoid the nets of heaven. In another tradition, howe...
  • Cao Lanh (Vietnam)
    city, located about 75 miles (120 km) west and slightly south of Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), southwestern Vietnam. Cao Lanh is on the left bank of the Mekong River, on the southern edge of the Dong Thap Muoi (“Plain of Reeds”). The city is a rice-trading centre, has a hospital, and is linked by road with Hong Ngu on the Cambodian border. Pop. (1989) 54,349....
  • Cao Pi (emperor of Wei dynasty)
    founder of the short-lived Wei dynasty (ad 220–265/266) during the Sanguo (Three Kingdoms) period of Chinese history....
  • Cao Xueqin (Chinese author)
    author of Hongloumeng (Dream of the Red Chamber), generally considered China’s greatest novel. A partly autobiographical work, it is written in the vernacular and describes in lingering detail the decline of the powerful Jia family and the ill-fated love between Baoyu and his cousin Lin Daiyu....
  • Cao Yu (Chinese author)
    Chinese playwright who was a pioneer in huaju (“word drama”), a genre influenced by Western theatre rather than traditional Chinese drama (which is usually sung)....
  • Cao Zhan (Chinese author)
    author of Hongloumeng (Dream of the Red Chamber), generally considered China’s greatest novel. A partly autobiographical work, it is written in the vernacular and describes in lingering detail the decline of the powerful Jia family and the ill-fated love between Baoyu and his cousin Lin Daiyu....
  • Cao Zhi (Chinese poet)
    one of China’s greatest lyric poets and the son of the famous general Cao Cao....
  • Cao Zijian (Chinese poet)
    one of China’s greatest lyric poets and the son of the famous general Cao Cao....
  • caoshu (Chinese calligraphy)
    in Chinese calligraphy, a cursive variant of the standard Chinese scripts lishu and kaishu and their semicursive derivative xingshu. The script developed during the Han dynasty (206 bc–ad 220), and it had its p...
  • caoutchouc (chemical compound)
    elastic substance obtained from the exudations of certain tropical plants (natural rubber) or derived from petroleum and natural gas (synthetic rubber). See also elastomer....
  • Caoyang New Village (housing, Shanghai, China)
    The concept of state-supported housing was introduced in 1951 with the development of Caoyang Xin Cun (Caoyang New Village) in an existing industrial zone on Shanghai’s western periphery. Following the construction of the Caoyang Xin Cun, many other residential complexes were built. Some of them were constructed with the partial support of government bureaus or state-owned industrial......
  • Caoyang Xin Cun (housing, Shanghai, China)
    The concept of state-supported housing was introduced in 1951 with the development of Caoyang Xin Cun (Caoyang New Village) in an existing industrial zone on Shanghai’s western periphery. Following the construction of the Caoyang Xin Cun, many other residential complexes were built. Some of them were constructed with the partial support of government bureaus or state-owned industrial......
  • cap (wine making)
    The cap of skins and pulp floating on top of the juice in red-wine fermentation inhibits flavour and colour extraction, may rise to an undesirably high temperature, and may acetify if allowed to become dry. Such problems are avoided by submerging the floating cap at least twice daily during fermentation. This operation, comparatively easy with small fermenters, becomes difficult with large,......
  • CAP (European economy)
    ...EEC was designed to create a common market among its members through the elimination of most trade barriers and the establishment of a common external trade policy. The treaty also provided for a common agricultural policy, which was established in 1962 to protect EEC farmers from agricultural imports. The first reduction in EEC internal tariffs was implemented in January 1959, and by July......
  • cap, blasting (explosive device)
    device that initiates the detonation of a charge of a high explosive by subjecting it to percussion by a shock wave. In strict usage, the term detonator refers to an easily ignited low explosive that produces the shock wave, and the term primer, or priming composition, denotes a substance that produces a sudden burst of flame to ignite the detonator. The primer may be set off by...
  • “Cap de Bonne-Espérance, Le” (work by Cocteau)
    ...The Imposter). He became a friend of the aviator Roland Garros and dedicated to him the early poems inspired by aviation, Le Cap de Bonne-Espérance (1919; The Cape of Good Hope). At intervals during the years 1916 and 1917, Cocteau entered the world of modern art, then being born in Paris; in the bohemian Montparnasse section of the city, he met......
  • cap lamp (device)
    Electric hand and cap lamps were introduced in mines in the early 1900s and by the middle of the 20th century were used almost exclusively in mines. A safety device in the headpiece of the electric lamps shuts off the current if a bulb is broken. Double-filament bulbs may be used, so the light can remain on when a filament fails....
  • cap of maintenance (heraldry)
    ...coronet, a coronet that supports the crest either instead of the wreath or in addition to it and resting upon it. This is often a ducal coronet, but it does not indicate rank. Another relic is the chapeau, or cap of maintenance, a cap with ermine lining that was once worn on the helmet before the development of mantling and that is sometimes used instead of the wreath to support the crest. In.....
  • cap rock (geology)
    Cap rock is a cap of limestone–anhydrite, characteristically 100 metres (328 feet) thick but ranging from 0 to 300 m. In many cases, particularly on Gulf Coast salt domes, the cap can be divided into three zones, more or less horizontally, namely, an upper calcite zone, a middle transitional zone characterized by the presence of gypsum and sulfur, and a lower anhydrite zone. These zones......
  • Cap Rock Escarpment (escarpment, Texas, United States)
    At the western edge of the North Central Plains lies the Cap Rock Escarpment, an outcropping of rock that stretches to the north and south for about 200 miles (320 kilometres). Protruding above the plains like a huge barricade, it is starkly visible in some places in cliffs that rise from 200 to almost 1,000 feet. Beyond that escarpment lies the third big step of Texas: the High Plains country......
  • Cap Saint-Jacques (Vietnam)
    port, southern Vietnam. It is situated near the tip of an 11-mile- (18-kilometre-) long projection into the South China Sea, which trends southwest and partially encloses Ganh Rai Bay. The bay receives the Saigon River on the northeastern Mekong delta. The port of Vung Tau has a pilot station, fuel depot, and sea harbour to serve vessels using the port of Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), 45 mil...
  • cap shell (gastropod family)
    ...conchs (Strombidae) of tropical oceans and the pelican’s foot shells (Aporrhaidae) of near Arctic waters.Superfamily CalyptraeaceaCap shells (Capulidae) and slipper shells (Calyptraeidae) are limpets with irregularly shaped shells with a small internal cup or shelf; many species show sex reversal, becoming males ea...
  • Cap Vert, Presqu’île du (peninsula, Senegal)
    peninsula in west-central Senegal that is the westernmost point of the African continent. Formed by a combination of volcanic offshore islands and a land bridge produced by coastal currents, it projects into the Atlantic Ocean, bending back to the southeast at its tip. Exposure to southwesterly winds contributes to Cape Verde’s seasonal verdant appearance, in contrast to the undulating yell...
  • cap-and-ball revolver (weapon)
    ...each chamber a percussion cap was placed over a hollow nipple that directed the jet of flame to the powder when the cap was struck by the hammer. This type of revolver was eventually called “cap-and-ball.” Where earlier revolvers required the shooter to line up a chamber with the barrel and cock the hammer in separate steps, Colt devised a single-action mechanical linkage that......
  • Cap-de-la-Madeleine (Canada)
    city, southern Quebec province, southeastern Canada. It is located on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River, at the mouth of the Saint-Maurice River, opposite Trois-Rivières city and midway between Quebec and Montreal cities....
  • Cap-Français (Haiti)
    city, northern Haiti. Founded in 1670 by the French, the city was then known as Cap-Français and gained early renown as the “Paris of the Antilles.” It served as capital of the colony (then known as Saint-Domingue) until 1770 and was the scene of slave uprisings in 1791. U.S. ships used its harbour during the dispute with France (1798–1800) and during...
  • Cap-Haïtien (Haiti)
    city, northern Haiti. Founded in 1670 by the French, the city was then known as Cap-Français and gained early renown as the “Paris of the Antilles.” It served as capital of the colony (then known as Saint-Domingue) until 1770 and was the scene of slave uprisings in 1791. U.S. ships used its harbour during the dispute with France (1798–1800) and during...
  • Capa, Cornell (American photographer)
    American photographer who as a Life magazine photojournalist (1946–67), made issues of social justice and politics the focus of images that provided an appreciation of the beauty of simple, ordinary events; he also founded (1974) the International Center of Photography in New York City. Capa’s best-known photo depicts three elegant ballerinas (1958) at the Bolshoi Ballet Schoo...
  • Cāpa dynasty (Indian history)
    In the 8th century the rising power in western India was that of the Gurjara-Pratiharas. The Rajput dynasty of the Guhilla had its centre in Mewar (with Chitor as its base). The Capa family was associated with the city of Anahilapataka (present-day Patan) and are involved in early Rajput history. In the Haryana region the Tomara Rajputs (Tomara dynasty), originally feudatories of the......
  • Capa, Robert (American photographer)
    photographer whose images of war made him one of the greatest photojournalists of the 20th century....
  • capa y espada play (Spanish literature)
    17th-century Spanish plays of upper middle class manners and intrigue. The name derives from the cloak and sword that were part of the typical street dress of students, soldiers, and cavaliers, the favourite heroes. The type was anticipated by the plays of Bartolomé de Torres Naharro, but its popularity was established by the inventive dramas of Lope de Vega and Tirso de Molina. The extreme...
  • Capablanca, José Raúl (Cuban chess player)
    chess master who won the world championship (1921) from Emanuel Lasker and lost it (1927) to Alexander Alekhine....
  • Capac Huari (Incan noble)
    ...had originally favoured the succession of Huayna Capac (Wayna Qhapaq), the youngest son of his principal wife and sister. Shortly before his death, he changed his mind and named as his successor Capac Huari (Qhapaq Wari), the son of another wife. Capac Huari, however, never became emperor. The claims of his mother and her relatives were suppressed by the supporters of Huayna Capac. This......
  • Capac Yupanqui (Incan leader)
    The Inca forces crossed the Quechua territory and attacked the provinces of Vilcas and Soras, southwest of the area controlled by the Chanca. In about 1445, Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui sent his brother Capac Yupanqui (Qhapaq Yupanki) to explore the south coast, marking the first time the Inca reached the ocean. Returning to Cuzco, Capac Yupanqui passed through Chanca territory and captured a few of......
  • Capac Yupanqui (emperor of Incas)
    ...small domains throughout the Andes. Under Mayta Capac the Inca began to expand, attacking and looting the villages of neighbouring peoples and probably assessing some sort of tribute. Under Capac Yupanqui, the next emperor, the Inca first extended their influence beyond the Cuzco valley, and under Viracocha Inca, the eighth, they began a program of permanent conquest by establishing......
  • capacitance (electronics)
    property of an electric conductor, or set of conductors, that is measured by the amount of separated electric charge that can be stored on it per unit change in electrical potential. Capacitance also implies an associated storage of electrical energy. If electric charge is transferred between two initially uncharged conductors, both become equally charged, one positively, the ot...
  • capacitance heating (physics)
    method by which the temperature of an electrically nonconducting (insulating) material can be raised by subjecting the material to a high-frequency electromagnetic field. The method is widely employed industrially for heating thermosetting glues, for drying lumber and other fibrous materials, for preheating plastics before molding, and for fast jelling and drying of foam rubber....
  • capacitation (physiology)
    ...process in the ducts of the male reproductive tract; the process may be continued when, after ejaculation, they pass through the female tract. Maturation of the sperm in the female tract is called capacitation....
  • capacitive reactance (physics)
    Capacitive reactance, on the other hand, is associated with the changing electric field between two conducting surfaces (plates) separated from each other by an insulating medium. Such a set of conductors, a capacitor, essentially opposes changes in voltage, or potential difference, across its plates. A capacitor in a circuit retards current flow by causing the alternating voltage to lag behind......
  • capacitor (physics)
    Capacitance in electric circuits is deliberately introduced by a device called a capacitor. It was discovered by the Prussian scientist Ewald Georg von Kleist in 1745 and independently by the Dutch physicist Pieter van Musschenbroek at about the same time, while in the process of investigating electrostatic phenomena. They discovered that electricity obtained from an electrostatic machine could......
  • capacitor dielectric (ceramics)
    advanced industrial materials that, by virtue of their poor electrical conductivity, are useful in the production of electrical storage or generating devices....
  • capacitor induction motor (technology)
    This motor is similar to the three-phase motor except that it has only two windings (a-a′ and b-b′) on its stator displaced 90° from each other. The a-a′ winding is connected directly to the single-phase supply. For starting, the b-b′ winding (commonly called the auxiliary winding) is connected through a......
  • capacitor microphone (electroacoustic device)
    ...an electric circuit. Depending on the type of microphone, displacement of the diaphragm may cause variations in the resistance of a carbon contact (carbon microphone), in electrostatic capacitance (condenser microphone), in the motion of a coil (dynamic microphone) or conductor (ribbon microphone) in a magnetic field, or in the twisting or bending of a piezoelectric crystal (crystal microphone;...
  • capacity (electronics)
    property of an electric conductor, or set of conductors, that is measured by the amount of separated electric charge that can be stored on it per unit change in electrical potential. Capacitance also implies an associated storage of electrical energy. If electric charge is transferred between two initially uncharged conductors, both become equally charged, one positively, the ot...
  • capacity (mathematics)
    Next, given a choice of technology, the capacity of the system must be determined. The capacity of the system is designed to be a function of the amount of available capital, the demand forecast for the output of the facility, and many other minor factors. Again, these decisions must be made wisely. Establishing too much capacity, too soon, can burden a company with excess costs and inefficient......
  • capacity rating (electronics)
    The capacity rating of the machine differs from its shaft power because of two factors—namely, the power factor and the efficiency. The power factor is the ratio of the real power delivered to the electrical load divided by the total voltage–current product for all phases. The efficiency is the ratio of the electrical power output to the mechanical power input. The difference......
  • capacity to contract (contract law)
    The requirement of capacity to contract usually means that the individual obtaining insurance must be of a minimum age and must be legally competent; the contract will not hold if the insured is found to be insane or intoxicated or if the insured is a corporation operating outside the scope of its authority as defined in its charter, bylaws, or articles of incorporation....
  • capacity to sue (law)
    in law, the requirement that a person who brings a suit be a proper party to request adjudication of the particular issue involved. The test traditionally applied was whether the party had a personal stake in the outcome of the controversy presented and whether the dispute touched upon the legal relations of the parties having adverse legal interests....
  • Čapajevsk (Russia)
    city, Samara oblast (province), western Russia, on the Chapayevka River, a tributary of the Volga. Formerly a centre of the defense industry specializing in explosives, it now concentrates on nitrogen production and ammonia synthesis. A college of technology is located in the city. Pop. (2006 est.) 72,948....
  • Çapakçur (Turkey)
    city in eastern Turkey, lying along the Göniksuyu, a tributary of the Murat River. It is a market for grain, livestock, and livestock products of the area. The city takes its name (bin, “thousand,” göl, “lakes”) from numerous small lakes that dot the Bingöl Mountains to ...
  • Capaldi, Jim (British musician)
    British rock musician (b. Aug. 2, 1944, Evesham, Worcestershire, Eng.—d. Jan. 28, 2005, London, Eng.), was a founding member of the psychedelic rock band Traffic. Capaldi formed his first band at the age of 14 and played drums with other bands on the British music scene. He and keyboardist Steve Winwood founded Traffic in 1967, and by the end of the year, the band had released Mr. Fantas...
  • Capaldi, Nicola James (British musician)
    British rock musician (b. Aug. 2, 1944, Evesham, Worcestershire, Eng.—d. Jan. 28, 2005, London, Eng.), was a founding member of the psychedelic rock band Traffic. Capaldi formed his first band at the age of 14 and played drums with other bands on the British music scene. He and keyboardist Steve Winwood founded Traffic in 1967, and by the end of the year, the band had released Mr. Fantas...
  • Capanaparo River (river, Venezuela)
    ...through the lowest level of the plains and increases to about five miles in width. Along the bend, it receives the largest number of tributaries of its entire course, including the Meta, Arauca, and Capanaparo rivers. The Apure River contributes waters from numerous Andean streams, which form a swampy maze in their lower courses....
  • capanna indiana, La (poetry by Bertolucci)
    ...Bologna (1935–38), he began teaching art history and contributing to such journals as Circoli, Letteratura, and Corrente. In 1951 Bertolucci moved to Rome and published La capanna indiana (1951; revised and enlarged, 1955, 1973; “The Indian Hut”), which discusses his struggle for peace and privacy in a turbulent world. The work earned Bertolucci ...
  • Capannori (Italy)
    commune comprising 38 small localities in Toscana (Tuscany) region, central Italy. Capannori village is a market centre, with paper mills and button and paint factories. The parish church has a 13th-century facade and a Lombardesque campanile. The church of Sta. Margherita dates in part from the 12th century. Pop. (2006 est.) mun., 42,943....
  • Caparra (historical settlement, Puerto Rico)
    town, northeastern Puerto Rico, part of the metropolitan area of San Juan (10 miles [16 km]) northeast) and the island’s second most populous city. Puerto Rico’s first settlement, Caparra, was founded in the area in 1508 by the Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León. Bayamón was established as a town in 1772. It manufactures clothing, furniture, automotive parts, metal pro...
  • Caparra, Il (Italian craftsman)
    ...such as may still be seen at Florence, Siena, and elsewhere, and the rare gondola prows of Venice. Of the ironworkers of the early Renaissance, the most famous was the late-15th-century craftsman Niccolo Grosso of Florence, nicknamed “Il Caparra” because he gave no credit but insisted on money on account. From his hand is the well-known lantern on the Palazzo Strozzi in Florence,....
  • capax horse mussel (mollusk)
    The capax horse mussel (Modiolus capax) has a bright orange-brown shell under a thick periostracum; its range in the Pacific Ocean extends from California to Peru. The Atlantic ribbed mussel (Modiolus demissus), which has a thin, strong, yellowish brown shell, occurs from Nova Scotia to the Gulf of Mexico. The tulip mussel (Modiolus......
  • cape (bullfighting)
    Spanish matador who reputedly invented the bullfighter’s muleta, a red cape used in conjunction with the sword. With it the matador leads the bull through the most spectacular passes of the bullfight, finally leading it to lower its head, so that the matador may thrust the sword between the bull’s shoulders. Romero is the earliest of the famous matadors....
  • Cape Barren goose (bird)
    ...called geese are a number of waterfowl of gooselike build that live in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres and belong to other groups. Among them are the magpie goose, sheldgoose, perching duck, Cape Barren goose of Australia, (Cereopsis novaehollandiae), African pygmy goose (Nettapus auritus), and the solan goose (see gannet)....
  • Cape Breton Highlands (upland, Nova Scotia, Canada)
    forested upland, northernmost Nova Scotia, Canada, on Cape Breton Island. The highlands, which occupy a large peninsula bounded by the Atlantic Ocean on the east and the Gulf of St. Lawrence on the west, are the most prominent physical feature of Nova Scotia. Rising abruptly from either coast, they form an undulating plateau that averages 1,200 feet (370 m) a...
  • Cape Breton Highlands National Park (national park, Nova Scotia, Canada)
    ...feet (532 m), is the highest point in the province. Though uninhabited except along a narrow coastal fringe, the highlands are a popular scenic and recreational area that is partially embraced by Cape Breton Highlands National Park (367 square miles [951 square km]). The scenic Cabot Trail, a highway 185 miles (298 km) long, encircles most of the region....
  • Cape Breton Island (island, Nova Scotia, Canada)
    northeastern portion of Nova Scotia, Canada. It is separated from the remainder of the province and the Canadian mainland by the 2-mile- (3-kilometre-) wide Strait of Canso (southwest) and is further bounded by the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Cabot Strait (north), the Atlantic Ocean (east and south), and Northumberland Strait (west). The island is 110 miles (175...
  • Cape buffalo (mammal)
    largest and most formidable of African bovids. Similar to the water buffalo of Asia, the Cape buffalo is massive, black, and sparsely haired, standing up to 1.5 metres (5 feet) at the shoulder, with bulls weighing up to about 900 kg (2,000 pounds). Its heavy horns typically curve downward, then up and inward, spanning up to a metre in width. A broad shield, wh...
  • Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (military base, Florida, United States)
    largest and most formidable of African bovids. Similar to the water buffalo of Asia, the Cape buffalo is massive, black, and sparsely haired, standing up to 1.5 metres (5 feet) at the shoulder, with bulls weighing up to about 900 kg (2,000 pounds). Its heavy horns typically curve downward, then up and inward, spanning up to a metre in width. A broad shield, wh...
  • Cape cedar (tree)
    ...includes four species of evergreen shrubs, or tall trees, sometimes called African cypresses. Some species produce fragrant, durable, yellowish or brownish wood of local importance, such as Clanwilliam cedar, or Cape cedar (W. juniperoides), a tree 6 to 18 metres tall, with wide-spreading branches, found in the Cedarburg Mountains. Willowmore cedar (W. schwarzii), a tree......
  • Cape Coast (Ghana)
    town in the centre of the seaboard of Ghana. It lies on a low promontory jutting into the Gulf of Guinea of the Atlantic Ocean about 75 miles (120 km) southwest of the Ghanaian capital of Accra....
  • Cape Cod Canal (waterway, Massachusetts, United States)
    artificial waterway in southeastern Massachusetts, U.S. A part of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, it joins Cape Cod Bay (northeast) with the waters of Buzzards Bay (southwest) and traverses the narrow isthmus of Cape Cod. The canal is 17.5 miles (28 km) long, including its dredged approaches. It has a width of 500 feet...
  • Cape Cod, Precinct of (Massachusetts, United States)
    town (township), Barnstable county, eastern Massachusetts, U.S., at the northern tip of Cape Cod. It is located among sand dunes within a fishhook-shaped harbour that was visited by the explorers Bartholomew Gosnold in 1602 and Henry Hudson in 1609. Before the Pilgrims founded Plymouth, they landed there on Nov. 11, 1620 (Old Style), an even...
  • Cape Colony (British colony, South Africa)
    British colony established in 1806 in what is now South Africa. With the formation of the Union of South Africa (1910), the colony became the province of the Cape of Good Hope, also called Cape Province. ...
  • Cape Coloured (people)
    a person of mixed European (“white”) and African (“black”) or Asian ancestry, as officially defined by the South African government from 1950 to 1991....
  • Cape Coral (Florida, United States)
    city, Lee county, southwestern Florida, U.S. It is situated on a broad peninsula pointing southward, with Fort Myers just to the northeast across the estuary of the Caloosahatchee River and Pine Island (and the Gulf of Mexico beyond) to the west across the strait known as Matlacha Pass. Created as a planned community and first settled in 1958, the city was inc...
  • Cape Dezhev (cape, Russia)
    cape, extreme eastern Russia. Cape Dezhnyov is the easternmost point of the Chukchi Peninsula and of the entire Eurasian landmass. It is separated from Cape Prince of Wales in Alaska by the Bering Strait. The Russian name was given in 1879 in honour of a Russian explorer S.I. Dezhnyov, who with F.A. Popov first rounded it in 1648....
  • Cape Dezhnëv (cape, Russia)
    cape, extreme eastern Russia. Cape Dezhnyov is the easternmost point of the Chukchi Peninsula and of the entire Eurasian landmass. It is separated from Cape Prince of Wales in Alaska by the Bering Strait. The Russian name was given in 1879 in honour of a Russian explorer S.I. Dezhnyov, who with F.A. Popov first rounded it in 1648....
  • Cape doctor (wind system)
    ...between southeast and southwest in summer. Southerly winds produce a cloud cover over Table Mountain known as the “tablecloth.” These winds are collectively referred to as the “Cape doctor” because they keep air pollution at a low level....
Skip this Advertisement

Link to this article and share the full text with the readers of your Web site or blog-post.

If you think a reference to this article on "" will enhance your Web site, blog-post, or any other web-content, then feel free to link to this article, and your readers will gain full access to the full article, even if they do not subscribe to our service.

You may want to use the HTML code fragment provided below.

copy link

We welcome your comments. Any revisions or updates suggested for this article will be reviewed by our editorial staff. Contact us here.

Regular users of Britannica may notice that this comments feature is less robust than in the past. This is only temporary, while we make the transition to a dramatically new and richer site. The functionality of the system will be restored soon.

The Britannica Store
A-Z Browse

Image preview