Dracaena: Major species: Lucky bamboo (Dracaena braunii) and corn plant (D. fragrans), frequently with yellow leaf edges or white stripes, are common houseplants. Snake plant, or mother-in-law’s-tongue (D. trifasciata, formerly Sansevieria trifasciata), is another popular houseplant, known for its attractive upright foliage.

Sansevieria: Mother-in-law’s tongue, or snake plant (Dracaena trifasciata, formerly Sansevieria trifasciata), is a popular houseplant with yellow-striped leaves and tiny pale green scented flowers. It is sometimes sold as Sansevieria.

Ukraine: Parliamentary democracy: …leadership headed by the poet Ivan Drach.

Königswinter: The Drachenfels (“Dragon’s Rock”), a hill 1,053 feet (321 metres) high, is crowned by a ruined castle built in the 12th century by the archbishop of Cologne and destroyed by the French in the 17th century. According to the Nibelungen legends, the Drachenloch (“Dragon’s Cave”) in…

drachma, silver coin of ancient Greece, dating from about the mid-6th century bc, and the former monetary unit of modern Greece. The drachma was one of the world’s earliest coins. Its name derives from the Greek verb meaning “to grasp,” and its original value was equivalent to that of a handful of

Holger Henrik Herholdt Drachmann was a writer most famous for his lyrical poetry, which placed him in the front rank of late 19th-century Danish poets. The son of a physician, Drachmann studied painting and also began to write. A visit to London in 1871 awakened an interest in social problems, and

Drachten, city in northwestern Netherlands. It lies along the Wijde Ee waterway, which is part of the canal system that flows into the larger Prinses Margriet Canal to the northwest. The surrounding area consists of lowlands; there are forests at nearby Beetsterwaag, and peat moors are found

Draco, genus of the lizard family Agamidae. Members of the genus are commonly referred to as flying lizards, because scaly membranes between the forelegs and hindlegs allow them to glide from tree to tree. There are more than 40 species of Draco. Most species are small, with a snout-vent length

Draco, constellation in the northern sky at about 18 hours right ascension and 70° north in declination. Its brightest star is Eltanin (from the Arabic for “dragon’s head”), with a magnitude of 2.2. Because of the precession of Earth’s axis, the star Thuban was the polestar in the third millennium

Draco was an Athenian lawgiver whose harsh legal code punished both trivial and serious crimes in Athens with death—hence the continued use of the word draconian to describe repressive legal measures. The six junior archons (thesmotetai), or magistrates, are said by Aristotle to have been

dragonhead, (genus Dracocephalum), genus of about 70 species of plants in the mint family (Lamiaceae). Dragonheads are native to temperate Eurasia, with the exception of one species, the American dragonhead (Dracocephalum parviflorum), which is native to North America. Several species are grown as

dragonhead: …exception of one species, the American dragonhead (Dracocephalum parviflorum), which is native to North America. Several species are grown as ornamentals for their attractive flowers.

Draco was an Athenian lawgiver whose harsh legal code punished both trivial and serious crimes in Athens with death—hence the continued use of the word draconian to describe repressive legal measures. The six junior archons (thesmotetai), or magistrates, are said by Aristotle to have been

perciform: Annotated classification: Family Draconettidae Look like callionymids but are separated on differences in head skeleton; no preopercular spine; about 12 species; North Atlantic and North Pacific in deep water. Suborder Anabantoidei Small percoidlike fishes characterized by an accessory air-breathing chamber of labyrinthic structure on each side of head,…

Draconian laws, traditional Athenian law code allegedly introduced by Draco c. 621 bce. Aristotle, the chief source for knowledge of Draco, claims that his were the first written Athenian laws and that Draco established a constitution enfranchising hoplites, the lower class soldiers. The Draconian

month: The draconic, or nodical, month of 27.212220 days (i.e., 27 days 5 hours 5 minutes 35.8 seconds) is the time between the Moon’s passages through the same node, or intersection of its orbit with the ecliptic, the apparent pathway of the Sun.

guinea worm disease, infection in humans caused by a parasite known as the guinea worm (Dracunculus medinensis). The disease’s alternate name, dracunculiasis, is Latin for “affliction with little dragons,” which adequately describes the burning pain associated with the infection. Historically a

Blossius Aemilius Dracontius was the foremost Christian Latin poet of Africa. He lived at the time of the literary revival that took place under Vandal rule in the latter part of the 5th century. At Carthage Dracontius received the traditional rhetorical education and practiced as a lawyer. Though

Dracula, American horror film, released in 1931, that is considered one of the early classics of the genre. Bela Lugosi’s performance as the vampire Count Dracula is widely acknowledged as the definitive portrayal of the character, who first appeared in Bram Stoker’s novel of the same name. The

Dracula, Gothic novel by Bram Stoker, published in 1897, that was the most popular literary work derived from vampire legends and became the basis for an entire genre of literature and film. What you’ll find out about Dracula These AI-generated questions have been reviewed by Britannica’s editors.

Horror of Dracula, British horror film, released in 1958, that was the first in a series of Dracula films produced by Hammer Films studio in England. A box-office hit, it helped establish Hammer as the successor to the American studio Universal as the leading producer of popular horror cinema. In

Dracula: Jonathan Harker goes to Transylvania: Harker plans to meet with Count Dracula, a client of his firm, in order to finalize a property transaction. When he arrives in Transylvania, the locals react with terror after he discloses his destination: Castle Dracula. Though this unsettles him slightly, he continues onward. The ominous howling of wolves rings…

Mel Brooks: Films of the 1980s and 1990s: …a director was the unremarkable Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995).

Bram Stoker: Death and posthumous publications: …author) and Ian Holt produced Dracula: The Un-Dead, a sequel that is based on the novelist’s own notes and excisions from the original. The sequel, which shuns the epistolary style of the first Dracula for traditional third-person narrative, is a thriller set in London in 1912, and it features Bram…

guinea worm disease, infection in humans caused by a parasite known as the guinea worm (Dracunculus medinensis). The disease’s alternate name, dracunculiasis, is Latin for “affliction with little dragons,” which adequately describes the burning pain associated with the infection. Historically a

guinea worm, (Dracunculus medinensis), member of the phylum Nematoda. The guinea worm, a parasite of humans, is found in tropical regions of Asia and Africa and in the West Indies and tropical South America. A variety of other mammals are also parasitized by guinea worms. The disease caused by the

bill of exchange, short-term negotiable financial instrument consisting of an order in writing addressed by one person (the seller of goods) to another (the buyer) requiring the latter to pay on demand (a sight draft) or at a fixed or determinable future time (a time draft) a certain sum of money

conscription, compulsory enrollment for service in a country’s armed forces. It has existed at least from the time of the Egyptian Old Kingdom (27th century bce), but there have been few instances—ancient or modern—of universal conscription (calling all those physically capable between certain

ship: Naval architecture: Draft is measured from the keel to the waterline, while freeboard is measured from the waterline to the deck edge. These terms, together with several others of importance in ship design, are given in the figure.

draft animal, any domesticated animal used in drawing heavy loads. Draft animals were in common use in Mesopotamia before 3000 bc for farm work and for pulling wheeled vehicles. Their use spread to the rest of the world over the following 2,500 years. While cattle, usually in teams, have been used

Chadwick Boseman: …linebacker prospect Vontae Mack in Draft Day (2014), starring Kevin Costner, before taking on the portrayal of music legend James Brown in Get On Up (2014). Boseman’s evocation of Brown was widely hailed as riveting and unforgettable.

history of Europe: Technological innovations: …greater striking force, and the draft horse, now shod with iron horseshoes that protected the hooves from the damp clay soils of northern Europe. The draft horse was faster and more efficient than the ox, the traditional beast of burden. The invention of the new horse collar in the 10th…

Ilija Garašanin: …a memorandum entitled Nac̆ertanije (“Draft Plan”). This document, with remarkable prescience, anticipated the decline of the Ottoman and Habsburg (Austrian) empires and argued that Serbia would be well-placed to fill the resulting political vacuum. He posited that the most likely line of territorial expansion would lie through Kosovo and…

Draft Riot of 1863, major four-day eruption of violence in New York City resulting from deep worker discontent with the inequities of conscription during the U.S. Civil War. Although labouring people in general supported the Northern war effort, they had no voice in Republican policy and

caoshu, 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 period of greatest growth during the Tang dynasty (618–907). In caoshu the number

20th-century international relations: Security and the League of Nations: …as Lord Robert Cecil, whose Draft Treaty of Mutual Assistance came under discussion in 1923. Beneš rightly criticized the Draft Treaty for requiring unanimity on the League Council to declare sanctions against an aggressor, for only in rare cases was the accused party’s guilt obvious to all, as the 1914…

20th-century international relations: Security and the League of Nations: …as Lord Robert Cecil, whose Draft Treaty of Mutual Assistance came under discussion in 1923. Beneš rightly criticized the Draft Treaty for requiring unanimity on the League Council to declare sanctions against an aggressor, for only in rare cases was the accused party’s guilt obvious to all, as the 1914…

drafting, graphical representation of structures, machines, and their component parts that communicates the engineering intent of a technical design to the craftsman or worker who makes the product. At the design stage, both freehand and mechanical drawings serve the functions of inspiring and

drawing, in yarn manufacture, process of attenuating the loose assemblage of fibres called sliver (q.v.) by passing it through a series of rollers, thus straightening the individual fibres and making them more parallel. Each pair of rollers spins faster than the previous one. Drawing reduces a soft

drafting: Equipment: The drafting machine, introduced about 1930, allows a straightedge to be moved while maintaining any desired angle between it and the edge of the drawing board. Combining the functions of the T square, triangle, protractor, and scale, it greatly increases the efficiency of producing a drawing.

harrow: The horse-drawn or tractor-drawn spike-tooth harrow, or drag, developed in the early 19th century, has sections 1 to 1.5 metres (3 to 5 feet) wide with long spike teeth mounted nearly vertically on horizontal bars. It is used chiefly for pulverizing soil and for early cultivation. Spring-tooth harrows (developed…

drag, force exerted by a fluid stream on any obstacle in its path or felt by an object moving through a fluid. Its magnitude and how it may be reduced are important to designers of moving vehicles, ships, suspension bridges, cooling towers, and other structures. Drag forces are conventionally

fluid mechanics: Drag: …a dimensionless quantity called the drag coefficient; this is defined, irrespective of the shape of the body, as the ratio [FD/(ρv02/2)A] and is denoted by CD. At high velocities, CD is clearly the same thing as the ratio (A′/A) and should therefore be of order unity.

mining: The seafloor: These are the deep-sea drag dredge and the deep-sea hydraulic dredge. The deep-sea drag dredge would be designed to skim only a thin layer of material from the seafloor until its bucket is filled with nodules. The dredge would then be retrieved, the bucket drawn up over a track…

drag, force exerted by a fluid stream on any obstacle in its path or felt by an object moving through a fluid. Its magnitude and how it may be reduced are important to designers of moving vehicles, ships, suspension bridges, cooling towers, and other structures. Drag forces are conventionally

Sam Raimi: Comic-book adaptations and later films: …revisited the horror genre for Drag Me to Hell (2009) and directed the big-budget family adventure film Oz the Great and Powerful (2013). Although a critical disappointment, Raimi’s take on L. Frank Baum’s mythos was a hit with audiences. That same year Raimi produced Evil Dead, a remake that replaced…

drag queen, a man who dresses in women’s clothes and performs before an audience. Drag shows (typically staged in nightclubs and Gay Pride festivals) are largely a subcultural phenomenon. Though drag has never enjoyed mainstream appeal, drag queen is a common enough term in popular culture, partly

drag racing, form of motor racing that originated in the United States and in which two contestants race from a standing start side by side on a drag strip—a flat, straight course, most commonly 1 4 mile (0.4 km) long. Both elapsed time (in seconds) and final speed (in miles per hour; mph) are

balloon flight: The rip panel and drag rope: Most of the features of the classic free balloon were included in Charles’s first machine. Important later additions were the rip panel, first used on April 27, 1839, by the American aeronaut John Wise, and the drag rope, invented about 1830 by the…

commercial fishing: Seine nets: …nets are often employed in beach seining, where fish shoals are near beaches. Large beach-seining operations for sardinelike fishes and other species are carried on in the Indian Ocean. The importance of this method has decreased as pollution has cut the available stocks of fish in this region and as…

tachometer: The eddy-current, or drag, type is widely used in automobile speedometers; a magnet rotated with the shaft being measured produces eddy currents that are proportional to angular speed. Electric-generator tachometers work by generating either an alternating or a direct current. The stroboscope, an instrument that illuminates…

dharmapāla, in Tibetan Buddhism, any one of a group of eight divinities who, though benevolent, are represented as hideous and ferocious in order to instill terror in evil spirits. Worship of dharmapālas was initiated in the 8th century by the magician-saint Padmasambhava, who is said to have

Battle of Drăgăşani, (June 19, 1821), military engagement in which the Ottoman Turks defeated the forces of the Greek revolutionary society Philikí Etaireía and ended the first insurrection of the Greek War of Independence. Intending to overthrow Ottoman rule in the Balkans and to establish an

Vince Vaughn: Later films: …later starred as detectives in Dragged Across Concrete (2018).

Kentucky: Exploration and settlement: …prophecies of a Cherokee chieftain, Dragging-Canoe, that Boone and other white settlers would find Kentucky “a dark and bloody land” were in large part fulfilled. During the American Revolution (1775–83), British officers antagonized the native peoples, who responded most notably by mounting raids on Boonesborough in 1777 and 1778 and…

Mario Draghi is an Italian economist who served from 2011 to 2019 as president of the European Central Bank (ECB), the financial institution responsible for making monetary decisions within the eurozone, that portion of the European Union whose members have adopted the European common currency.

Yelena Isinbayeva: That summer she surpassed American Stacy Dragila’s world record with a 4.82-metre (15-foot 9.75-inch) vault and then triumphed in two more major athletics meets over fields that included Feofanova and Dragila. Isinbayeva finished third at the 2003 International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) world championships, but by the 2004 world…

dredge: The scraper dredge, also called a dragline, handles material with a scoop suspended from a swinging boom. The scoop is drawn forward by a line attached to the front, while a second line attached to the rear holds the scoop at the proper angle to slice…

Harry Morgan: …starred in the police procedural Dragnet 1967 (1967–70), a revival of an earlier series that had featured his on-screen partner, Jack Webb.

radio: Police and detective dramas: …life breathed into it with Dragnet, which debuted on June 3, 1949, over NBC. The brainchild of a young writer-director-actor named Jack Webb, Dragnet employed essentially the same format as Calling All Cars, but it was much more realistic, focusing on the day-to-day, tedious grind of catching crooks. Webb starred…

Calvo Doctrine: …was essentially restated by the Drago Doctrine, articulated by the Argentine foreign minister Luis María Drago in 1902. Venezuela then was indebted to Great Britain, Germany, and Italy, which threatened armed intervention to collect. Drago advised the United States government that “The public debt cannot occasion armed intervention nor even…

Luis María Drago was a statesman and author of the Drago Doctrine, which opposed the forcible collection of debts through military intervention in any South American republic. A member of a distinguished Argentine family, Drago began his career as a newspaper editor. He later served as Argentine

dragoman, official interpreter in countries where Arabic, Turkish, and Persian are spoken. Originally the term applied to any intermediary between Europeans and Middle Easterners, whether as a hotel tout or as a traveller’s guide, but there developed the official dragomans of foreign ministries and

St. Ludmila: …the opposing party, particularly with Drahomíra, who, as regent, favoured the pagans. An ensuing feud between Ludmila and Drahomíra ended when agents entered Tetin Castle and strangled Ludmila, a deed that has traditionally been ascribed to Drahomíra’s instigation.

Botoşani: The Dragomirna Monastery, located near Itcani village, was completed in 1609 by Anastase Crimca, metropolitan of Moldavia and a painter of miniatures. The monastery, fortified in 1627 by Prince Miron Barnevschi (also spelled Barnovschí), contains a collection of manuscripts decorated by illuminators who were trained in…

dragon, in the mythologies, legends, and folktales of various cultures, a large lizard- or serpent-like creature, conceived in some traditions as evil and in others as beneficent. In medieval Europe, dragons were usually depicted with wings and a barbed tail and as breathing fire. In Greece the

Dragon, privately developed spacecraft built by the American corporation SpaceX and the first private spacecraft to carry astronauts to orbit. The first of two test flights was launched on December 8, 2010, and the second test flight, which carried cargo to the International Space Station (ISS),

Dragon: …Dragon configuration was supplanted by Dragon 2, which has two variants, Crew Dragon and Cargo Dragon. Crew Dragon can carry up to seven astronauts. An uncrewed demo Crew Dragon docked with the ISS in March 2019. The first Crew Dragon 2 flight with two astronauts, Demo-2, launched in May 2020,…

Dragon Ball Z, Japanese anime television series based on the Dragon Ball manga (Japanese comic) by Toriyama Akira. The story follows martial arts master Son Goku and his allies as they fight to defend Earth from a variety of aliens, androids, and mystical creatures. Originally airing in Japan from

Chinese literature: 1949–76: …plays, such as Longxugou (1951; Dragon Beard Ditch), which earned him the prestigious title of People’s Artist. Another very popular play, Baimaonü (1953; White-Haired Girl) by He Jingzhi, was taken from a contemporary folk legend. It was made a model that all writers were supposed to follow.

Dragon Boat Festival, prominent and festive Chinese holiday that originated at least 1,500 years ago and features dragon boat races and rice dumplings. It is one of the three “festivals of the living,” along with the Chinese New Year and the Mid-Autumn Festival. Known as Duanwu Jie in Mandarin and

pagoda: …structure known as the “dragon palace” or “dragon cave,” consisting chiefly of a brick- or stone-lined room. This enclosure, which was sometimes decorated with murals, held a container in which relics and funerary objects had been placed. The container holding the sacred objects was usually placed within one or…

Frank Herbert: …novels are the highly acclaimed Dragon in the Sea (1956), The Green Brain (1966), The Santaroga Barrier (1968), The Heaven Makers (1968), The God Makers (1972), and The Dosadi Experiment (1977).

long: …into the Dragon Kings (Longwang), gods who lived in the four oceans, delivered rain, and protected seafarers.

U-2, single-seat, high-altitude jet aircraft flown by the United States for intelligence gathering, surveillance, and reconnaissance. Perhaps the most famous spy plane ever built, the U-2, also known as the Dragon Lady, has been in service since 1956. A prototype flew in 1955, and the last plane in

Cixi was the consort of the Xianfeng emperor (reigned 1850–61), mother of the Tongzhi emperor (reigned 1861–75), adoptive mother of the Guangxu emperor (reigned 1875–1908), and a towering presence over the Chinese empire for almost half a century. By maintaining authority over the Manchu imperial

Madame Nhu was a South Vietnamese political figure who was a significant force behind her bachelor brother-in-law Ngo Dinh Diem, who exercised dictatorial powers as president of South Vietnam from 1955 until his assassination in 1963. Tran Le Xuan was born into an aristocratic Buddhist family, but

John Bernard Flannagan: …and perhaps even the tumid Dragon Motif (1933). The spirit of the inert material seems to emerge from those works and mingle with the impressions made by the carver. Shortly before he committed suicide, Flannagan had begun to work in wrought bronze.

Bosnia and Herzegovina: Ottoman Bosnia: …a charismatic young kapetan called Husein seized power in Bosnia, imprisoning the vizier in Travnik. With an army of 25,000 men, Husein then marched into Kosovo to negotiate with the Ottoman grand vizier, demanding local autonomy for Bosnia and an end to the reform process there. But the grand vizier…

long: …Dragon of Hidden Treasure (Fuzanglong); the Earth Dragon (Dilong), who controls the waterways; and the Spiritual Dragon (Shenlong), who controls the rain and winds. In popular belief only the latter two were significant; they were transformed into the Dragon Kings (Longwang), gods who lived in the four oceans, delivered…

pagoda: …structure known as the “dragon palace” or “dragon cave,” consisting chiefly of a brick- or stone-lined room. This enclosure, which was sometimes decorated with murals, held a container in which relics and funerary objects had been placed. The container holding the sacred objects was usually placed within one or…

dress: China: Qifu, or “dragon robes” (longpao) as they were usually called, were designed for regular court wear by men and women of imperial, noble, and official rank. The qifu was a straight, kimono-sleeved robe with a closely fitted neckband that continued across the breast and down…

dragon rug, any of the most numerous group of the Kuba carpets and a great favourite among rug fanciers because of striking design and colouring. The basic pattern—great, irregular, jagged bands that form an ogee lattice—is closely related to that of the vase carpets of Kermān, upon which they were

Jack Conway: The 1940s: Buck’s novel, with Katharine Hepburn miscast as the Chinese heroine repelling Japanese invaders.

Jack Conway: The 1940s: …in Brittany (1943), Conway helmed Dragon Seed (1944), an adaptation of Pearl S. Buck’s novel, with Katharine Hepburn miscast as the Chinese heroine repelling Japanese invaders.

longship, type of sail-and-oar vessel that predominated in northern European waters for more than 1,500 years and played an important role in history. Ranging from 45 to 75 feet (14 to 23 metres) in length, clinker-built (with overlapped planks), and carrying a single square sail, the longship was

Fleur Adcock: …collections included Poems, 1960–2000 (2000), Dragon Talk (2010), The Land Ballot (2015), Hoard (2017), and Collected Poems (2019, expanded edition 2024).

Michael Crichton: …Latitudes, about 17th-century pirates, and Dragon Teeth, which centres on the rivalry between paleontologists in the American West in the 1800s; the novels were published in 2009 and 2017, respectively. Micro (2011), which imagines the sinister applications of miniaturization technology, derived from a partially finished manuscript that was expanded by…

Dracaena: Major species: Dragon trees, notably D. draco from the Canary Islands, can grow more than 18 metres (60 feet) tall and 6 metres (20 feet) wide. The trunk contains a red gum, called dragon’s blood, valued for its medicinal properties. A number of Dracaena species are listed…

guinea worm, (Dracunculus medinensis), member of the phylum Nematoda. The guinea worm, a parasite of humans, is found in tropical regions of Asia and Africa and in the West Indies and tropical South America. A variety of other mammals are also parasitized by guinea worms. The disease caused by the

dragon’s blood, red resin obtained from the fruit of several palms of the genus Daemonorops and used in colouring varnishes and lacquers. Once valued as a medicine in Europe because of its astringent properties, dragon’s blood now is used as a varnish for violins and in photoengraving for

burnet: …garden, or salad, burnet (Sanguisorba minor) and the great burnet (S. officinalis)—are eaten in salads or used as an ingredient in fines herbes, a mixture of herbs commonly used in French cuisine. The dried leaves are also used to make tea.

Dragons Mouths, channel of the southeastern Caribbean Sea, between Point Peñas (the eastern end of the Paria Peninsula in northeastern Venezuela) and the northwestern extremity of the island of Trinidad. The channel, about 12 miles (20 km) wide, is one of two separating Trinidad from mainland South

Upton Sinclair: For Dragon’s Teeth (1942), the third novel in the series, about the Nazi takeover of Germany in the 1930s, Sinclair won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1943.

pipsissewa: …called striped pipsissewa, rheumatism root, dragon’s tongue, and spotted wintergreen, occurs in North America from Canada to the southern United States. The name pipsissewa derives from a Cree Indian word referring to the diuretic properties of the leaves when eaten.

dragon’s-mouth, (Arethusa bulbosa), species of terrestrial orchid (family Orchidaceae) found only in North American bogs. The plant is the only species in the genus Arethusa. The dragon’s-mouth orchid is a perennial plant with a small corm and a single grasslike leaf. It produces a solitary reddish

Dragons Mouths, channel of the southeastern Caribbean Sea, between Point Peñas (the eastern end of the Paria Peninsula in northeastern Venezuela) and the northwestern extremity of the island of Trinidad. The channel, about 12 miles (20 km) wide, is one of two separating Trinidad from mainland South

Captain & Tennille: …comprising the husband-and-wife team of Daryl Dragon and Toni Tennille. Captain & Tennille rose to the top of the pop charts in the mid-1970s with their upbeat rendition of Neil Sedaka’s “Love Will Keep Us Together.” As the top-selling single of 1975, the song launched the duo into pop stardom.

dragonet, any of about 40 species of marine fishes constituting the family Callionymidae (order Perciformes), found in warm temperate or tropical areas, particularly in the Indo-Pacific region. Dragonets characteristically have large and elongated fins, large, flattened heads, and small gills that

double bass: Beethoven’s friend Domenico Dragonetti and the conductor Serge Koussevitzky, both skilled bassists, composed concerti for the instrument.