Skip this Advertisement

A-Z Browse

  • Lamellisabella zachsi (beardworm)
    ...as a distinct phylum in the middle of the 20th century. The first species, Siboglinum weberi, described in 1914, came from the seas of the Malayan Archipelago; the second species, Lamellisabella zachsi, which came from the Okhotsk Sea, was described in 1933. In 1937 a new class called Pogonophora was established for Lamellisabella. In 1955 a close affinity between......
  • Lamennais, Félicité (French priest)
    French priest and philosophical and political writer who attempted to combine political liberalism with Roman Catholicism after the French Revolution. A brilliant writer, he was an influential but controversial figure in the history of the church in France....
  • Lamennais, Hugues-Félicité-Robert de (French priest)
    French priest and philosophical and political writer who attempted to combine political liberalism with Roman Catholicism after the French Revolution. A brilliant writer, he was an influential but controversial figure in the history of the church in France....
  • lament (poetry)
    a nonnarrative poem expressing deep grief or sorrow over a personal loss. The form developed as part of the oral tradition along with heroic poetry and exists in most languages. Examples include Deor’s Lament, an early Anglo-Saxon poem, in which a minstrel regrets his change of status in relation to his patron, and the ancient Sumerian “Lament for the Destru...
  • Lament for a Bullfighter (poem by Lorca)
    ...and Tyrone Power (1941). The best-known poem of Federico García Lorca is Llanto por Ignacio Sánchez Mejías (1935; Eng. trans. Lament for a Bullfighter), each verse of which ends with the line “at five in the afternoon.” (Mejías was a writer, a close friend of Lorca’s, and a bullfighter who was...
  • Lament for a Nation: The Defeat of Canadian Nationalism (work by Grant)
    Canadian philosopher who achieved national renown with his pessimistic 97-page book, Lament for a Nation: The Defeat of Canadian Nationalism (1965)....
  • Lament for Adonis (Greek literature)
    ...Bucolica, mostly concerned with love and only occasionally with bucolic themes, strike a playful, sometimes sententious note. Since the Renaissance, Bion has also been credited with the Lament for Adonis, in about 100 hexameters, whose overheated and highly coloured emotionalism may reflect the cult of Adonis, which was popular in the poet’s homeland. A Greek text and Engli...
  • Lament for the Destruction of Ur (Mesopotamian poem)
    ancient Sumerian composition bewailing the collapse of the 3rd Dynasty of Ur (c. 2112–c. 2004 bc) in southern Mesopotamia. The lament, primarily composed of 11 “songs” or stanzas of unequal length, begins by enumerating some of the prominent cities and temples of Sumer and the deities who had deserted them. In the second ...
  • Lament for the Makaris, The (work by Dunbar)
    ...Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedie is a virtuoso demonstration of personal abuse directed against his professional rival Walter Kennedy, who is, incidentally, mentioned with affection in The Lament for the Makaris, Dunbar’s reminiscence of dead poets. Dunbar’s most celebrated and shocking satire is the alliterative Tretis of the tua mariit Wemen and the Wedo......
  • Lament for the Young King (song by Born)
    The Young King was so popular that the people of Le Mans and Rouen almost went to war for the custody of his body, and in his mother’s hereditary lands he was immortalized in the “Lament for the Young King” by the troubadour Bertran de Born....
  • Lament of the Nymph (madrigal by Monteverdi)
    ...instruments, thus achieving a counterpoint of contrasting sonorities. Such concerto-like effects became an essential part of the later madrigals and operas of Claudio Monteverdi. In his madrigal Lament of the Nymph, a single soprano voice is pitted against three male voices, and both in turn against an instrumental continuo (figured bass played, for example, by cello and harpsichord) in....
  • Lamentabili Sane Exitu (papal decree)
    ...XIII of the Pontifical Biblical Commission to monitor the work of Scripture scholars, and the formal condemnation in 1907 in the papal encyclical Pascendi Dominici Gregis and the decree Lamentabili Sane Exitu of the Curia’s Holy Office. In order to ensure enforcement, the priest-scholar Umberto Benigni organized, through personal contacts with theologians, a nonofficial gro...
  • Lamentaciones hechas para Semana Santa (work by Manrique)
    ...of the Birth of Our Lord”), written at the request of his sister, an abbess, and consisting of a series of dramatic tableaux recounting the birth of Christ. A similar piece, entitled Lamentaciones hechas para Semana Santa (“Lamentations for Holy Week”), was a chronicle of the Crucifixion that achieved great popularity owing to its lyrical pathos....
  • Lamentation (work by Donatello)
    ...doors for the Florentine baptistery, was abandoned about 1460 for unknown reasons (most likely technical or financial). Only two reliefs for them were executed; one of them is probably the “Lamentation” panel now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London....
  • Lamentations of Jeremiah (offertory by Palestrina)
    ...abandons the old cantus firmus technique and writes music in free style, whereas in the hymns he paraphrases the traditional melody, usually in the highest voice. In the Lamentations of Jeremiah he brings effective contrast to bear on the sections with Hebrew and Latin text, the former being melismatic (floridly vocalized) in style and the latter simpler and......
  • Lamentations of Jeremiah, The (Bible)
    Old Testament book belonging to the third section of the biblical canon, known as the Ketuvim, or Writings. In the Hebrew Bible, Lamentations stands with Ruth, the Song of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, and Esther and with them makes up the Megillot, five scrolls that are read on various festivals of the Jewish religious year. In the Jewish liturgical calendar, Lamentations is the festal scroll of the Nin...
  • Lamento (operatic excerpt by Monteverdi)
    ...a pupil of his wife, died of smallpox. Nevertheless, the part was re-cast, and the opera was finally produced in May 1608. It was an enormous success. The score has been lost, except for the famous “Lamento,” which survives in various versions and is the first great operatic scena (i.e., a scene of especially dramatic effect, usually with arias)....
  • Laments (work by Kochanowski)
    ...expression, he devised his own poetic syntax and patterns of versification, setting high standards for the centuries to come. His crowning achievement is the cycle Treny (1580; Laments), 19 poems inspired by the death of his beloved daughter, Urszula. Kochanowski was also the author of the first Polish Renaissance tragedy, Odprawa......
  • Lamerie, Paul de (English silversmith)
    well-known Dutch-born English silversmith....
  • Lamet languages (Asian language)
    ...in Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and Yunnan province in China. The members of the Palaungic branch are somewhat controversial but are generally given as Kano’ (Danau, or Danaw), Mang, and sometimes Lamet (which are often grouped in the Khmuic branch), as well as the many languages classified within the Palaung-Riang, Angkuic, and Waic subbranches of Palaungic....
  • Lameth, Alexandre-Theodore-Victor, comte de (French noble)
    French nobleman who was a leading advocate of constitutional monarchy in the early stages of the French Revolution of 1789....
  • Lami, Eugène (French designer)
    ...than imagination is the distinguishing quality of his designs. In 1832 the influence of the Romantic period was first seen in ballet with a production of La Sylphide. Eugène Lami designed a muslin dress, an ethereal costume that became the new uniform of the classical dancer, for Marie Taglioni, the greatest dancer of her day....
  • Lamia (Greek mythology)
    in Classical mythology, a female daemon who devoured children. The ancient commentaries on Aristophanes’ Peace say she was a queen of Libya who was beloved by Zeus. When Hera robbed her of her children from this union, Lamia killed every child she could get into her power. Athenian mothers used her as a threat to frighten naughty children. Flavius Philostratus...
  • Lamia (poem by Keats)
    ...of youthful lovers. Written in Spenserian stanzas, the poem presents its theme with unrivaled delicacy but displays no marked intellectual advance over Keats’s earlier efforts. Lamia is another narrative poem and is a deliberate attempt to reform some of the technical weaknesses of Endymion. Keats makes use in this poem of a far tight...
  • Lamía (Greece)
    city of central Greece in the Sperkhiós River valley at the foot of the Óthris Mountains, near the Gulf of Euboea. It is the capital of the Fthiótis nomós (department) and the seat of a bishop of the Greek Orthodox church. Lamía commands the strategic Foúrka Pass leading northwestward into Thessaly (Thessalía)....
  • Lamiaceae (plant family)
    the mint family of flowering plants, with 236 genera and more than 7,000 species, the largest family of the order Lamiales. It is important to humans for herb plants useful for flavour, fragrance, or medicinal properties. Most members of the family have square stems; paired, opposite, simple leaves; and two-lipped, open-mouthed, tubular corollas (united petals), with five-lobed, bell-like calyxes ...
  • Lamiales (plant order)
    mint order of flowering plants, including 23 families and more than 23,000 species. The main families in the order are Lamiaceae, Verbenaceae, Plantaginaceae, Scrophulariaceae, Orobanachaceae, Acanthaceae, Gesneriaceae, Bignoniaceae, Oleaceae, Pedaliaceae, and the sm...
  • Lamian War (Greek history)
    conflict in which Athenian independence was lost despite efforts by Athens and its Aetolian allies to free themselves from Macedonian domination after the death of Alexander the Great. Athenian democratic leaders, headed by Hyperides, in conjunction with the Aetolian Confederacy, fielded an army of 30,000 men in October 323. The commander was the Athenian mercenary Leosthenes, w...
  • Lâmiî Çelebi (scholar)
    ...of the Harp”), a mystical allegory by Ahmed-i Dâi, and the satirical Harname (“Tale of the Donkey”), by Sinan Şeyhi. A century later, Lâmiî Çelebi of Bursa initiated translations of the major Persian mesnevîs into Turkish. He was especially influenced by the......
  • Lamikis (king of Courland)
    ...lands north of the Western Dvina, it mounted a crusade (c. 1220s) against the Curonians, who had established their own tribal kingdom by the end of the 9th century. In 1230 the Curonian king Lammekinus (Lamikis), in order to avoid the order’s rule, made peace directly with the papal legate, accepted baptism, and became a vassal of the pope. But the order refused to honour this......
  • lamina (gray matter)
    The gray matter of the spinal cord is composed of nine distinct cellular layers, or laminae, traditionally indicated by Roman numerals. Laminae I to V, forming the dorsal horns, receive sensory input. Lamina VII forms the intermediate zone at the base of all horns. Lamina IX is composed of clusters of large alpha motor neurons, which innervate striated muscle, and small gamma motor neurons,......
  • lamina (plant leaf)
    ...when present, are located on each side of the leaf base and may resemble scales, spines, glands, or leaflike structures. The petiole is a stalk that connects the blade with the leaf base. The blade is the major photosynthetic surface of the plant and appears green and flattened in a plane perpendicular to the stem....
  • lamina (geology)
    ...normally greater than one centimetre in thickness and visibly separable from superjacent (overlying) and subjacent (underlying) beds. “Strata” refers to two or more beds, and the term lamina is sometimes applied to a unit less than one centimetre in thickness. Thus, lamination consists of thin units in bedded, or layered, sequence in a natural rock succession, whereas......
  • lamina cribrosa (anatomy)
    ...with some choroidal tissue, stretches across the opening, and the sheet thus formed is perforated to permit the passage of fasciculi (bundles of fibres) of the optic nerve. This region is called the lamina cribrosa (Figure 1). The blood vessels of the sclera are largely confined to a superficial layer of tissue, and these, along with the conjunctival vessels, are responsible for the bright......
  • laminar flow (physics)
    type of fluid (gas or liquid) flow in which the fluid travels smoothly or in regular paths, in contrast to turbulent flow, in which the fluid undergoes irregular fluctuations and mixing. In laminar flow, sometimes called streamline flow, the velocity, pressure, and other flow properties at each point in the fluid remain constant. Laminar flow over a horizontal surface may be tho...
  • laminar motion (physics)
    type of fluid (gas or liquid) flow in which the fluid travels smoothly or in regular paths, in contrast to turbulent flow, in which the fluid undergoes irregular fluctuations and mixing. In laminar flow, sometimes called streamline flow, the velocity, pressure, and other flow properties at each point in the fluid remain constant. Laminar flow over a horizontal surface may be tho...
  • laminar placentation (botany)
    ...ovules along the central axis of the ovary; free central, derived from the axile, with a central column bearing the ovules; basal, with ovules positioned on a low column at the base of the ovary; or laminar, with ovules scattered over the inner surfaces of carpels. ...
  • Laminaria (algae)
    genus of brown algae commonly known as kelp....
  • Laminaria digitata (alga species)
    genus of brown algae commonly known as kelp.......
  • laminate (chemical compound)
    Although wood has always been regarded as the traditional material for furniture making, several other materials are now used, either entirely replacing wood or combined with it. Plastic laminate, widely used for table and other tops, is obtainable in various colours and designs and in photographically reproduced natural wood grain. Its advantages are that it resists all liquid stains, is......
  • laminated glass
    ...that are flexible and difficult to break; wire-embedded glass, which holds together when broken; tempered glass, which is very strong and breaks into tiny and relatively harmless fragments; and laminated glass, which consists of two layers of glass heat-welded together by an intermediate plastic film. Laminated glass can also be made with tinted lamination film, producing many colours not......
  • laminated wood
    in technology, the process of building up successive layers of a substance, such as wood or textiles, and bonding them with resin to form a finished product. Laminated board, for example, consists of thin layers of wood bonded together; similarly, laminated fabric consists of two or more layers of cloth joined together with an adhesive, or a layer of fabric bonded to a plastic sheet. See......
  • lamination (technology)
    in technology, the process of building up successive layers of a substance, such as wood or textiles, and bonding them with resin to form a finished product. Laminated board, for example, consists of thin layers of wood bonded together; similarly, laminated fabric consists of two or more layers of cloth joined together with an adhesive, or a layer of fabric bonded to a plastic s...
  • lamination (geology)
    ...normally greater than one centimetre in thickness and visibly separable from superjacent (overlying) and subjacent (underlying) beds. “Strata” refers to two or more beds, and the term lamina is sometimes applied to a unit less than one centimetre in thickness. Thus, lamination consists of thin units in bedded, or layered, sequence in a natural rock succession, whereas......
  • Lamington Plateau (plateau, Queensland, Australia)
    section of the McPherson Range, southeastern Queensland, Australia, near the New South Wales border. With an average elevation of 2,000 feet (600 m), it occupies an area of about 75 square miles (195 square km). The headwaters of the Nerang, Coomera, Albert, and Logan rivers rise there. The plateau, named after Baron Lamington (Charles W. Baillie), a former state governor, is the site of Lamingto...
  • Lamium (plant)
    The 40 to 50 species of the genus Lamium are known as dead nettles; they are low weedy plants that are sometimes cultivated. There are about 350 species in the genus Thymus, all Eurasian. Wild thyme (T. serpyllum), with scented leaves, is a creeping plant that is native in Europe but naturalized in eastern North America. Its foliage and flower heads resemble those of garden......
  • Lāmiyyat al-ʿArab (work by Shanfarā)
    One of the earliest methods by which poems were categorized was that of rhyming syllable. Thus, the famous pre-Islamic ode of the brigand poet al-Shanfarā was known as Lāmiyyat al-ʿArab (literally, “The L-Poem of the Arabs”). Even when, beginning about the 9th century, the works of poets were habitually collected under different......
  • Lamizana, Sangoulé (president of Burkina Faso)
    Since Burkina Faso became an independent nation, the military has on several occasions intervened during times of crisis. In 1966 the military, led by Lieutenant-Colonel (later General) Sangoulé Lamizana, ousted the elected government of Maurice Yaméogo. General Lamizana dominated the nation’s politics until November 1980, when a series of strikes launched by workers, teachers...
  • Lamlam, Mount (mountain, Guam)
    ...slopes to the east (and also, in part, to the west) are covered with younger limestones, generally similar to those of the northern limestone plateau. The island rises to 1,332 feet (406 metres) at Mount Lamlam, the highest point. Other major hills are Mount Bolanos (1,207 feet [368 metres]) and Mount Sasalaguan (1,086 feet [331 metres])....
  • Lammasch, Heinrich (Austrian statesman)
    jurist who served briefly as Austrian prime minister during the last weeks of the Habsburg Empire....
  • Lammekinus (king of Courland)
    ...lands north of the Western Dvina, it mounted a crusade (c. 1220s) against the Curonians, who had established their own tribal kingdom by the end of the 9th century. In 1230 the Curonian king Lammekinus (Lamikis), in order to avoid the order’s rule, made peace directly with the papal legate, accepted baptism, and became a vassal of the pope. But the order refused to honour this......
  • lammergeier (bird)
    (species Gypaetus barbatus), big eaglelike vulture of the Old World (family Accipitridae), frequently over 1 m (40 inches) long, with a wingspread of nearly 3 m (10 feet). Brown above and tawny below, the lammergeier has spots on the breast, black and white stripes on the head, and long bristles on the “chin.” Eaglelike features are the feathered face and legs, curved beak, s...
  • lammergeir (bird)
    (species Gypaetus barbatus), big eaglelike vulture of the Old World (family Accipitridae), frequently over 1 m (40 inches) long, with a wingspread of nearly 3 m (10 feet). Brown above and tawny below, the lammergeier has spots on the breast, black and white stripes on the head, and long bristles on the “chin.” Eaglelike features are the feathered face and legs, curved beak, s...
  • lammergeyer (bird)
    (species Gypaetus barbatus), big eaglelike vulture of the Old World (family Accipitridae), frequently over 1 m (40 inches) long, with a wingspread of nearly 3 m (10 feet). Brown above and tawny below, the lammergeier has spots on the breast, black and white stripes on the head, and long bristles on the “chin.” Eaglelike features are the feathered face and legs, curved beak, s...
  • Lamming, George (West Indian author)
    West Indian novelist and essayist who wrote about decolonization and reconstruction in the Caribbean nations....
  • Lamming, George William (West Indian author)
    West Indian novelist and essayist who wrote about decolonization and reconstruction in the Caribbean nations....
  • Lamna (fish genus)
    (genus Lamna), any member of a group of sharks in the family Isuridae. The name is also used as a collective name for the family, which includes, in addition, the white shark and the mako shark groups....
  • Lamna ditropis (fish)
    The genus Lamna includes the Atlantic mackerel shark, or porbeagle (L. nasus); and the Pacific mackerel shark, or salmon shark (L. ditropis)....
  • Lamna nasus (fish)
    species of mackerel shark....
  • Lamnidae (shark family)
    species of mackerel shark.......
  • lamoid (mammal)
    (Lama glama), South American member of the camel family, Camelidae (order Artiodactyla), closely related to the alpaca, guanaco, and vicuña, which are known collectively as lamoids. Unlike camels, lamoids do not have the characteristic camel humps; they are slender-bodied animals and have long legs and necks, short tails, small heads, and large, pointed ears. Gregarious animals,......
  • Lamoille (county, Vermont, United States)
    county, north-central Vermont, U.S. Its topography is mountainous, with the main ridge of the Green Mountains traversing the western part of the county. The region contains some of the state’s highest mountains—including the Sterling Range and Hogback, Cold Hollow, and Lowell mountains—and is forested with spruce, fir, hard maple, white pi...
  • Lamont, Corliss (American philosopher)
    U.S. humanist philosopher, author, and socialist, who was the son of the chairman of the J.P. Morgan investment bank but devoted his life to fighting for radical causes (b. May 28, 1902--d. April 26, 1995)....
  • Lamont, Johann von (German astronomer)
    Scottish-born German astronomer noted for discovering that the magnetic field of the Earth fluctuates with a period somewhat in excess of 10 years....
  • Lamont, Thomas William (American banker)
    American banker and financier who began his career by reorganizing corporations and went on to help establish financial stability in countries around the world....
  • Lamontagne-Beauregard, Blanche (Canadian poet)
    French-Canadian poet who is recognized as the first important female poet of French Canada....
  • Lamoore, Louis Dearborn (American writer)
    American writer, best-selling author of more than 100 books, most of which were formula westerns that were highly popular because of their well-researched portrayals of frontier life....
  • Lamoraal, count van Egmond (Dutch noble)
    leader in the early opposition to the policies of Philip II of Spain in the Netherlands. Although Egmond did not favour the overthrow of Spanish sovereignty, he became one of the first and most illustrious victims of the duke of Alba’s repressive regime (1567–73). He is the hero of J.W. von Goethe’s drama Egmont....
  • Lamoricière, Christophe-Louis-Leon Juchault de (French general)
    French general and administrator noted for his part in the conquest of Algeria....
  • Lamorisse, Albert (French director, producer, and writer)
    Original Screenplay: Albert Lamorisse for The Red BalloonMotion Picture Story: Dalton Trumbo (aka Robert Rich) for The Brave OneAdapted Screenplay: James Poe, John Farrow, S.J. Perelman for Around the world in 80 DaysCinematography,......
  • Lamour, Dorothy (American actress)
    (MARY LETA DOROTHY SLATON), U.S. actress (b. Dec. 10, 1914, New Orleans, La.--d. Sept. 22, 1996, Los Angeles, Calif.), was best remembered by filmgoers as the sarong-clad object of Bob Hope’s and Bing Crosby’s attention in a series of "Road" pictures. She was a favourite pinup of troops in World War II, frequently visited the Hollywood Canteen to dance and talk with GIs, and was a de...
  • L’Amour, Louis (American writer)
    American writer, best-selling author of more than 100 books, most of which were formula westerns that were highly popular because of their well-researched portrayals of frontier life....
  • Lamoureux, Lucien (Canadian politician and statesman)
    Canadian politician whose service as speaker of the House of Commons, from 1966 to 1974, was the longest in Canada’s history; he later was ambassador to Belgium and Luxembourg and to Portugal (b. Aug. 3, 1920, Ottawa, Ont.--d. July 16, 1998, Waterloo, Belg.)....
  • lamp (lighting)
    a device for producing illumination, consisting originally of a vessel containing a wick soaked in combustible material, and subsequently such other light-producing instruments as gas and electric lamps....
  • lamp envelope (electronics)
    The modern era in lighting began in the late 1960s when tungsten-halogen lamps with quartz envelopes came into wide use. The halogen compound is included inside the envelope, and its purpose is to combine with the tungsten evaporated from the hot filament. This forms a compound that is electrically attracted back to the tungsten filament. It thus prevents the evaporated tungsten from condensing......
  • lamp shell (animal)
    any member of the phylum Brachiopoda, a group of bottom-dwelling marine invertebrates. They are covered by two valves, or shells; one valve covers the dorsal, or top, side; the other covers the ventral, or bottom, side. The valves, of unequal size, are bilaterally symmetrical; i.e., the right and left sides are mirror images of one another. Brachiopods (from the Greek words meaning “...
  • Lampang (province, Thailand)
    any member of the phylum Brachiopoda, a group of bottom-dwelling marine invertebrates. They are covered by two valves, or shells; one valve covers the dorsal, or top, side; the other covers the ventral, or bottom, side. The valves, of unequal size, are bilaterally symmetrical; i.e., the right and left sides are mirror images of one another. Brachiopods (from the Greek words meaning “...
  • Lampang (Thailand)
    city, northern Thailand, located about 45 miles (72 km) southeast of Chiang Mai. It lies on the Wang River in the forested Khun Tan Range and is an administrative and commercial centre for the surrounding region. Once the seat of an independent principality, Lampang retains the old walled city as its nucleus. There is a large sugar plant nearby at Ko Kha. The ...
  • lampara net
    The most important sea-fishing gear is the surrounding net, represented by the older lampara nets and the more modern purse seines. Both are typical gear for pelagic fish schooling in large and dense shoals. When these nets are used, a shoal of fish is first surrounded with a curtain or wall of netting that is buoyed at the surface and weighted at the bottom. The lampara net has a large central......
  • Lampasan Series (geochronology)
    division of Pennsylvanian rocks and time in the south central and southwestern U.S., especially Texas (the Pennsylvanian Period, roughly equivalent to the Upper Carboniferous, began about 318,000,000 years ago and lasted about 19,000,000 years). The Lampasan Series is correlated with the Atokan Series (a standard division of the Lower Pennsylvanian in the U.S.), overlies the Bendian Series, and un...
  • Lampaul (France)
    ...of 6 square miles (15 square km). Its lighthouse, the Phare de Créac’h, marks the southern entrance to the English Channel, the northern entrance light being at Land’s End, Cornwall, England. Lampaul, a small port that is the capital of Ouessant, is the chief settlement of the island’s fishermen; its fields, which cover only a fraction of the island, traditionally ha...
  • lampblack (pigment)
    ...is a small hole in a box with a blackened interior, because practically none of the radiation entering such a hole could escape again, and it would be absorbed inside. A surface covered with lampblack will absorb about 97 percent of the incident light and, for most purposes, can be considered a blackbody. Polished metal surfaces, on the other hand, absorb only about 6 percent of the......
  • Lampe d’Aladin, La (work by Cocteau)
    ...such as the circus and the ice palace, as well as serious theatre, such as the tragedies performed at the Comédie-Française. At age 19 he published his first volume of poems, La Lampe d’Aladin (“Aladdin’s Lamp”)....
  • Lampedusa Island (island, Italy)
    largest island (area 8 square miles [21 square km]) of the Isole (islands) Pelagie (which include Linosa and Lampione islets), in the Mediterranean Sea between Malta and Tunis, 105 miles (170 km) southwest of Licata, Sicily. Administratively the group is part of Agrigento province, Sicily, Italy. Lampedusa’s greatest length is about 7 miles (11 km), its greatest width abo...
  • Lampel, Tomislav (Israeli journalist and politician)
    Israeli journalist and politician who enjoyed a successful career in journalism that spanned print media, radio, and television; he used his reputation as a journalist as a springboard into politics as a member of the secularist Shinui (“Change”) party and served (2003–04) as deputy prime minister and justice minister in a coalition government headed by Prime Minister Ariel Sh...
  • Lampert, Edward S. (American businessman)
    On March 25, 2005, investor Edward S. Lampert saw the completion of a deal that stunned the retail industry when it was first announced in November 2004: the acquisition of Sears, Roebuck & Co. by Kmart Holding Corp.—two of the largest retailers in the United States. Lampert had spurred the merger in 2003 by gaining a controlling interest in Kmart for $1 billion (although officially ...
  • Lampetra planeri (vertebrate)
    ...and, because of its parasitic habits, had a disastrous killing influence on lake trout and other commercially valuable fishes before control measures were devised. Other lampreys, such as the brook lamprey (Lampetra planeri), also spend their entire lives in freshwater. They are nonparasitic, however, and do not feed after becoming adults; instead they reproduce and die....
  • LAMPF (New Mexico, United States)
    ...electric fields are set up as standing waves within a cylindrical metal “resonant cavity,” with drift tubes suspended along the central axis. The largest proton linac is at the Clinton P. Anderson Meson Physics Facility in Los Alamos, N.M., U.S.; it is 875 m (2,870 feet) long and accelerates protons to 800 million electron volts (800 megaelectron volts). For much of its......
  • Lamphere, Robert Joseph (American intelligence officer)
    American government agent (b. Feb. 14, 1918, Wardner, Idaho—d. Jan. 7, 2002, Tucson, Ariz.), as a counterintelligence specialist for the FBI, supervised investigations into several major Soviet espionage cases from the end of World War II to the mid-1950s. He joined the FBI in 1941 after graduating from the National Law School, Washington, D.C. In 1947 Lamphere began work on the bureau...
  • Lamphun (province, Thailand)
    American government agent (b. Feb. 14, 1918, Wardner, Idaho—d. Jan. 7, 2002, Tucson, Ariz.), as a counterintelligence specialist for the FBI, supervised investigations into several major Soviet espionage cases from the end of World War II to the mid-1950s. He joined the FBI in 1941 after graduating from the National Law School, Washington, D.C. In 1947 Lamphere began work on the bureau......
  • Lamphun (Thailand)
    town, northern Thailand. Lamphun is an old walled town on the Kuang River, 16 miles (26 km) south of Chiang Mai. Although located on the Bangkok–Chiang Mai railway, it lost its commercial importance to Chiang Mai after 1921. Wat Phra That Haripunjaya is Lamphun’s most famous temple; the intricate doors of its sanctuary are covered in gold leaf. Neighbouring Pa Sang produces colourful...
  • Lampião (work by Queiroz)
    ...Golden Rooster”) was first published serially in 1950, but she was unhappy with it, and she completely reworked it for the book version of 1985. The first of her three plays, Lampião (1953), treats the actions of that legendary bandit and his lover, Maria Bonita, who abandons her husband and children to follow him. Most critics preferred her second play,.....
  • Lamplighter, The (work by Cummins)
    ...her life with her family in Dorchester. She developed an interest in writing during her school days, and the publication of some of her early short stories encouraged her. In 1854 she published The Lamplighter, which was a huge and immediate success, selling 40,000 copies in a few weeks and 70,000 in a year. The Lamplighter combined sentimentality, piety, and improbability in......
  • Lampman, Archibald (Canadian poet)
    Canadian poet of the Confederation group, whose most characteristic work sensitively records the feelings evoked by scenes and incidents of northern landscapes and seasons....
  • Lampong (people)
    people indigenous to Lampung province on the Sunda Strait in southern Sumatra, Indonesia. They speak Lampong, a Malayo-Polynesian language that has been written in a script related to the Hindu alphabet. A dependency of the Sultan of Bantam (western Java) after 1550, southern Sumatra contains many Lampong whose ancestors were granted noble titles. Great value continues to be placed on such distinc...
  • lampoon (literary form)
    virulent satire in prose or verse that is a gratuitous and sometimes unjust and malicious attack on an individual. Although the term came into use in the 17th century from the French, examples of the lampoon are found as early as the 3rd century bc in the plays of Aristophanes, who lampooned Euripides in The Frogs and Socrates in The Clouds. In English literature the f...
  • Lampoon (Thailand)
    town, northern Thailand. Lamphun is an old walled town on the Kuang River, 16 miles (26 km) south of Chiang Mai. Although located on the Bangkok–Chiang Mai railway, it lost its commercial importance to Chiang Mai after 1921. Wat Phra That Haripunjaya is Lamphun’s most famous temple; the intricate doors of its sanctuary are covered in gold leaf. Neighbouring Pa Sang produces colourful...
  • Lampoon (province, Thailand)
    town, northern Thailand. Lamphun is an old walled town on the Kuang River, 16 miles (26 km) south of Chiang Mai. Although located on the Bangkok–Chiang Mai railway, it lost its commercial importance to Chiang Mai after 1921. Wat Phra That Haripunjaya is Lamphun’s most famous temple; the intricate doors of its sanctuary are covered in gold leaf. Neighbouring Pa Sang produces colourful...
  • Lamprecht, Karl Gotthard (German historian)
    German historian who was one of the first scholars to develop a systematic theory of psychological factors in history....
  • lamprey (fish)
    any of about 43 species of primitive, fishlike, jawless vertebrates placed with hagfishes in the class Agnatha. Lampreys belong to the family Petromyzonidae. They live in coastal and freshwaters and are found in temperate regions around the world, except Africa. Eel-like, scaleless animals, they range from about 15 to 100 centimetres (6 to 40 inches) long. They have well-developed eyes, one or two...
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