- Pennsylvania Study, The (educational study)
The Pennsylvania Study, educational study conducted between 1925 and 1938 that intended to shift the definition of academic progress from the passing of time (the Carnegie unit as “the package method of academic advancement”) to a student’s demonstration of knowledge as ascertained by innovative
- Pennsylvania system (penology)
Pennsylvania system, penal method based on the principle that solitary confinement fosters penitence and encourages reformation. The idea was advocated by the Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons, whose most active members were Quakers. In 1829 the Eastern State
- Pennsylvania Training School for Feeble-Minded Children (training school, Pennsylvania, United States)
Isaac Newton Kerlin: …Children (later known as the Elwyn Institute), located outside Philadelphia. He became its superintendent in 1863 and remained in the position for the following three decades, until his death. As superintendent, Kerlin developed new treatments and advocated for the wider establishment of specialized institutions to prevent developmentally disabled individuals from…
- Pennsylvania Turnpike (highway, Pennsylvania, United States)
Pennsylvania Turnpike, one of the earliest major limited-access express highways in the United States, opened in 1940 as a state-run toll road running through the Allegheny Mountains and connecting Harrisburg in the east to Pittsburgh in the west. The highway was later extended 100 miles (160 km)
- Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (Pennsylvanian government)
road: The freeway: The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, established in 1937 to raise funds and build a toll road across the Appalachian Mountains, found an unusually favourable situation in the form of an abandoned railroad right-of-way, with many tunnels and excellent grades over much of the route that allowed the…
- Pennsylvania v. Muniz (law case)
confession: Confession in contemporary U.S. law: In Pennsylvania v. Muniz (1990), the court further limited Miranda by holding that when police pull over suspected drunken drivers, they can ask routine questions of the suspects and videotape the questioning without issuing Miranda warnings.
- Pennsylvania wood cockroach (insect)
cockroach: Family Ectobiidae: The Pennsylvania wood cockroach (Parcoblatta pennsylvanica) is found under logs and stones in northern latitudes. The male and female are so different in appearance that they were once considered separate species. The male, 15 to 25 mm (0.6 to 1 inch) long, has wings that extend…
- Pennsylvania, Bank of (bank, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States)
Benjamin Latrobe: …received the commission for his Bank of Pennsylvania, whose Ionic porticoes inspired countless imitations; the building is now considered the first monument of the Greek Revival in America. It is clear, however, that Latrobe did not feel himself confined by styles, as his Sedgeley House, Philadelphia, built about the same…
- Pennsylvania, flag of (United States state flag)
U.S. state flag consisting of a dark blue field (background) bearing a central coat of arms with black horses as supporters.In 1777 a seal was created bearing the coat of arms now found on the state flag. The Pennsylvania legislature authorized the use of the coat of arms on a flag for the state
- Pennsylvania, University of (university, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States)
University of Pennsylvania, private university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., one of the eight Ivy League schools, widely regarded for their high academic standards, selectivity in admissions, and social prestige. It is the oldest university in the country. (The oldest U.S. college is
- Pennsylvanian Subperiod (geochronology)
Pennsylvanian Subperiod, second major interval of the Carboniferous Period, lasting from 323.2 million to 298.9 million years ago. The Pennsylvanian is recognized as a time of significant advance and retreat by shallow seas. Many nonmarine areas near the Equator became coal swamps during the
- Pennsylvanian Subsystem (geology and stratigraphy)
geochronology: Completion of the Phanerozoic time scale: …from Pennsylvania, were formalized as Pennsylvanian in 1891 by the paleontologist and stratigrapher Henry Shaler Williams.
- penny (Anglo-Saxon coin)
coin: Anglo-Saxon penny coinages: English coinage proper began with the silver penny of Offa, king of Mercia (757–796). It was first struck at around the weight of the sceat, from about 790, and its weight increased to about 22 1 2 grains (equal to 240 to the…
- penny (monetary unit)
DOGE Highlights Costly U.S. Penny: annual report states that the penny’s unit cost is up 20.2 percent from 2023, now costing 3.69 cents to produce. Nickels are similarly expensive to make, costing 13.78 cents per coin. Both pennies and nickels have cost more to make than their face value (1 cent and 5 cents, respectively)…
- penny dreadful (book)
penny dreadful, an inexpensive novel of violent adventure or crime that was especially popular in mid-to-late Victorian England. Penny dreadfuls were often issued in eight-page installments. The appellation, like dime novel and shilling shocker, usually connotes rather careless and second-rate
- Penny Dreadful: City of Angels (American television series)
Nathan Lane: Later film and television credits: …murder of a family in Penny Dreadful: City of Angels (2020), a noirish horror series set in Los Angeles in 1938. He later had recurring roles on Only Murders in the Building (2021–) and The Gilded Age (2022–).
- Penny Post (postal service)
Penny Post, private postal service created by the London merchant William Dockwra in 1680. All letters and packets up to one pound in weight were delivered for one penny (1 d). The packets were also insured up to £10. Dockwra’s system consisted of several hundred receiving offices from which an
- Penny Saving Bank (bank, Richmond, Virginia, United States)
Maggie Lena Draper Walker: …African Americans and became the Consolidated Bank and Trust Company. Walker served thereafter as the bank’s chairman of the board. She also helped found the Richmond Council of Colored Women (1912). Serving as president, she helped raise large sums for the support of such institutions as Janie Porter Barrett’s Virginia…
- Penny Serenade (film by Stevens [1941])
Penny Serenade, American melodrama film, released in 1941, that highlights the difficulties of a young couple trying to raise an adopted child. The film follows Julie Adams (played by Irene Dunne) and her husband, Roger (Cary Grant), a reporter in San Francisco, from the beginning of their
- penny theatre (history of British theater)
Western theatre: Rise in the number of theatres: …there were the small “penny theatres” (of which more than 80 existed in London during the 1830s), where patrons paid a penny to see short, crudely mounted productions. Some individuals began to exploit their special talents as singers, dancers, mimics, and jugglers, giving solo performances in ale houses and…
- penny whistle (musical instrument)
kwela: …of street bands featuring the pennywhistle, who also performed at township dances. Subsequently one or two acoustic guitars and a string bass (and sometimes other instruments) were added. The kwela repertoire came to include North American swing music, standard from the 1950s on. In the 1950s “Spokes” Mashiyane and Lemmy…
- Penny, Laurie (British journalist)
gonzo journalism: Gonzo journalism since Thompson: …the writing of British journalist Laurie Penny, who combined a hyperbolic style with outspoken left-wing views in articles and books on feminism, gender, and class politics.
- Penny, Louise (Canadian author)
Louise Penny is a Canadian author of the best-selling mystery series that features Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Québec. Incorporating elements of a cozy mystery, the character-driven books are carefully plotted whodunits that explore such universal themes as love, friendship,
- penny-farthing (bicycle)
velocipede: …finally, in the ordinary, or penny-farthing, bicycle, the wheel would just go under the crotch of the rider. The “penny-farthing” nickname came from the smallest and largest British coins of the time, in reference to the disparity in the size of the wheels. By the second half of the 20th…
- pennycress (plant)
pennycress, (genus Thlaspi), genus of plants of the mustard family (Brassicaceae), named and sometimes grown for their round seedpods. Most of the species are Eurasian, but a few are native to North and South America, mostly in mountain areas. Pennycress species can be annuals or perennials and
- Pennypack Park (park, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States)
Philadelphia: Cultural life: …to Fairmount Park, Philadelphia has Pennypack Park in the northeast, a semiwilderness setting with bridle paths, bird-watching trails, and an abundance of deer and other wildlife. More than 100 other parks are located throughout the city.
- Pennyrile (region, Kentucky, United States)
Kentucky: Relief: The Pennyrile, spanning an area of some 12,000 square miles (31,000 square km), adjoins every other region of Kentucky except the Bluegrass. On the north its irregular boundaries are the Western Coalfield, the Ohio River, and the Knobs; on the east it merges with the Mountain…
- pennyroyal (plant)
mint: Major species: Pennyroyal (M. pulegium) has small oval obtuse leaves and flowers in axillary whorls and is remarkable for its creeping habit and pungent odour. It has been used in folk medicine to induce perspiration and menstruation. The plant has also been used as an herbal abortifacient,…
- Pennyville (Illinois, United States)
Park Ridge, city, Cook county, northeastern Illinois, U.S. A suburb of Chicago, it lies on the Des Plaines River, 17 miles (27 km) northwest of downtown. The area was first inhabited by Potawatomi Indians and used by French explorers as a portage. The site was settled in the early 1830s. In 1853
- pennyweight (ancient Roman unit of weight and coin)
coin: Introduction of the denarius: Adjustment of the previously fluctuating relationship between bronze and silver was first secured by the issue about 211 bc of the silver denarius (marked X—i.e., 10 bronze asses), together with fractional coins, also of silver (marked V—i.e., five; and IIS—i.e., 2 1 2 asses—a…
- Pennzoil Company (American company)
Pennzoil Company, American petroleum corporation that became an important producer of crude oil and natural gas and a major marketer of automotive products before disappearing at the end of the 20th century in a series of mergers and acquisitions. Pennzoil’s origins can be traced to two parallel
- Pennzoil United, Inc. (American company)
Pennzoil Company, American petroleum corporation that became an important producer of crude oil and natural gas and a major marketer of automotive products before disappearing at the end of the 20th century in a series of mergers and acquisitions. Pennzoil’s origins can be traced to two parallel
- Penobscot (people)
Penobscot, Algonquian-speaking North American Indians who lived on both sides of the Penobscot Bay and throughout the Penobscot River basin in what is now the state of Maine, U.S. They were members of the Abenaki confederacy. Penobscot subsistence was based on hunting, fishing, and collecting wild
- Penobscot (county, Maine, United States)
Penobscot, county, east-central Maine, U.S. Located in a highland region, the county contains many lakes, rivers, and ponds, foremost among them being the Penobscot River, the longest in the state; nearly all of the river’s 350-mile (560-km) course is through the county. Timberland is primarily
- Penobscot Bay (inlet, Maine, United States)
Penobscot Bay, inlet of the North Atlantic Ocean, on the coast of southern Maine, U.S., at the mouth of the Penobscot River. Lying 70 miles (110 km) northeast of Portland, it extends 35 miles (55 km) inland and is 27 miles (43 km) wide at its mouth. The bay includes many islands and sheltered
- Penobscot River (river, Maine, United States)
Penobscot River, river in Maine, U.S., formed by several headstreams draining numerous lakes that were created by melting glaciers. It is the state’s longest river, about 350 miles (560 km) in length. Its western and eastern branches join at Medway and run in a southeasterly and then southwesterly
- Penokean orogeny (geology)
Hudsonian orogeny: … in South Dakota, and the Penokean orogeny in the southern part of the Lake Superior region may represent the Hudsonian event in the United States. Precambrian rocks in the Southern Province, which extends south-southwest of Lake Superior into the mid-continental United States, also are dated in the Hudsonian time span.
- penology (sociology)
penology, the division of criminology that concerns itself with the philosophy and practice of society in its efforts to repress criminal activities. As the term signifies (from Latin poena, “pain,” or “suffering”), penology has stood in the past and, for the most part, still stands for the policy
- Penonomé (city, Panama)
Penonomé, city, west-central Panama, on the Pacific coastal lowland. The original Spanish settlement was founded on the ruins of an ancient Indian town on the Zaratí River. The city is now a commercial centre through which the rubber, coffee, and cacao produced in the region are shipped; soap and
- Penrhyn Atoll (atoll, Cook Islands, Pacific Ocean)
Penrhyn Atoll, most northerly of the Cook Islands, a self-governing state in free association with New Zealand in the South Pacific Ocean. A coral atoll, it has a 40-mile (64-km) reef that surrounds a lagoon of 108 square miles (280 square km). Penrhyn was inhabited by Polynesians at the time of
- Penrith (New South Wales, Australia)
Penrith, city, east-central New South Wales, Australia. It lies on the Nepean River, a section of the Hawkesbury River. Founded in 1815, it was known as Evan and Castlereagh before being renamed for Penrith in Cumberland (now in Cumbria), England. It was declared a municipality in 1871 and a city
- Penrith (England, United Kingdom)
Penrith, town, Eden district, administrative county of Cumbria, historic county of Cumberland, northwestern England. It is situated on a main route to Scotland, at the foot of the 937-foot (286-metre) Penrith Beacon overlooking the mountains of the scenic Lake District. Penrith Castle was built in
- Penrod (novel by Tarkington)
Penrod, comic novel by Booth Tarkington, published in 1914. Its protagonist, Penrod Schofield, a 12-year-old boy who lives in a small Midwestern city, rebels against his parents and teachers and experiences the baffling ups and downs of preadolescence. Tarkington expertly conveys the speech and
- Penrose diagram (physics)
Roger Penrose: …map, which is called a Penrose diagram, allows one to visualize the effects of gravitation upon an entity approaching a black hole. He also discovered Penrose tiling, in which a set of shapes can be used to cover a plane without using a repeating pattern.
- Penrose pattern (physics)
quasicrystal: Quasiperiodicity: …quasiperiodic translational order is the Penrose pattern, discovered by the English mathematical physicist Roger Penrose and shown in Figure 4. The diffraction pattern of such a sequence closely resembles the fivefold symmetric patterns of Figure 3. The rhombic tiles are arranged in sets of parallel rows; the shaded tiles represent…
- Penrose Research Laboratory (laboratory, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States)
zoo: Function and purpose: In the United States the Penrose Research Laboratory, of the Philadelphia Zoo, is particularly concerned with comparative pathology. The New York Zoological Society maintains an Institute for Research in Animal Behavior and, in Trinidad, the William Beebe Tropical Research Station. In Great Britain the Zoological Society of London maintains, in
- Penrose square stairway
number game: Impossible figures: One of these is the Penrose square stairway (Figure 6), which one could apparently traverse in either direction forever without getting higher or lower. Strange loops are important features of some of M.C. Escher’s lithographs, including “Ascending and Descending” (1960) and “Waterfall” (1961). The concept of the strange loop is…
- Penrose tiling (physics)
quasicrystal: Quasiperiodicity: …quasiperiodic translational order is the Penrose pattern, discovered by the English mathematical physicist Roger Penrose and shown in Figure 4. The diffraction pattern of such a sequence closely resembles the fivefold symmetric patterns of Figure 3. The rhombic tiles are arranged in sets of parallel rows; the shaded tiles represent…
- Penrose, Boies (United States senator)
Boies Penrose was an American legislator and longtime party boss of Pennsylvania. He served as U.S. senator from Pennsylvania from 1897 to 1921. Penrose was a member of a socially prominent Philadelphia family. He graduated from Harvard University in 1881 and was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar in
- Penrose, L. S. (British geneticist)
number game: Impossible figures: In 1958 L.S. Penrose, a British geneticist, and his son Roger Penrose, a mathematical physicist, introduced the undecidable figures called strange loops. One of these is the Penrose square stairway (Figure 6), which one could apparently traverse in either direction forever without getting higher or lower. Strange…
- Penrose, Richard Alexander Fullerton, Jr. (American geologist)
Richard Alexander Fullerton Penrose, Jr. was a geologist known for his explorations for manganese and iron-ore deposits. He was a member of the Arkansas Geological Survey from 1889 until 1892, when he became a faculty member at the University of Chicago. From 1917 until 1923 he served on the
- Penrose, Roger (British mathematician)
Roger Penrose is a British mathematician and relativist who in the 1960s calculated many of the basic features of black holes. For his work on black holes, he was awarded the 2020 Nobel Prize for Physics. He shared the prize with American astronomer Andrea Ghez and German astronomer Reinhard
- Penrose, Roland Algernon (British artist, collector, and writer)
Sir Roland Penrose was a British artist, collector, and writer known best for his curatorial work and promotion of modern and contemporary artists. Penrose attended Queens’ College, Cambridge, and earned a bachelor’s degree in architecture in 1922. He left for Paris that year and studied painting
- Penrose, Sir Roger (British mathematician)
Roger Penrose is a British mathematician and relativist who in the 1960s calculated many of the basic features of black holes. For his work on black holes, he was awarded the 2020 Nobel Prize for Physics. He shared the prize with American astronomer Andrea Ghez and German astronomer Reinhard
- Penrose, Sir Roland (British artist, collector, and writer)
Sir Roland Penrose was a British artist, collector, and writer known best for his curatorial work and promotion of modern and contemporary artists. Penrose attended Queens’ College, Cambridge, and earned a bachelor’s degree in architecture in 1922. He left for Paris that year and studied painting
- Penryn (English Channel port, England, United Kingdom)
Penryn, English Channel port, Cornwall unitary authority, southwestern England. It lies at the head of the River Penryn’s estuary, just northwest of Falmouth. The town owes its development to the bishops of Exeter, who granted the first charter (1265). James I (reigned 1603–25) granted and renewed
- Pensacola (Florida, United States)
Pensacola, city, seat (1822) of Escambia county, extreme northwestern Florida, U.S. It lies on Pensacola Bay (an arm of the Gulf of Mexico), about 35 miles (55 km) west of Fort Walton Beach and 60 miles (100 km) southeast of Mobile, Alabama. A Spanish settlement was made on the bay coast in 1559
- Pensacola Junior College (college, Pensacola, Florida, United States)
Pensacola: Pensacola Junior College (now Pensacola State College) opened there in 1948, and the University of West Florida opened in 1967.
- Pensacola State College (college, Pensacola, Florida, United States)
Pensacola: Pensacola Junior College (now Pensacola State College) opened there in 1948, and the University of West Florida opened in 1967.
- pensador, El (Spanish literary periodical)
José Clavijo y Fajardo: …editor of the literary periodical El pensador, he issued constant attacks against the performance of these plays, which had become little more than vulgar public spectacles. Because of his activity, the autos sacramentales were eventually banned in 1765. His love affair with Louise, sister of the French playwright Pierre-Augustin Caron…
- Pensadora Gaditana, La (Spanish literary periodical)
Spanish literature: Women writers: …for women increased dramatically, and La Pensadora Gaditana (1763–64), the first Spanish newspaper for women, was published by Beatriz Cienfuegos (believed by some to have been a man’s pseudonym). But the death of King Charles III in 1788 and the horror spread by the French Revolution brought an abrupt halt…
- pensée (literature)
pensée, a thought expressed in literary form. A pensée can be short and in a specific form, such as an aphorism or epigram, or it can be as long as a paragraph or a page. The term originated with French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal, whose Pensées (1670) was a collection of some 800
- Pensées (work by Pascal)
Blaise Pascal: Pensées: Pascal finally decided to write his work of Christian apologetics, Apologie de la religion chrétienne, as a consequence of his meditations on miracles and other proofs of Christianity. The work remained unfinished at his death. Between the summers of 1657 and 1658, he put…
- Pensées philosophiques (work by Diderot)
Denis Diderot: Mature career: Diderot’s own Pensées philosophiques (1746; Philosophic Thoughts), an original work with new and explosive anti-Christian ideas couched in a vivid prose, contains many passages directly translated from or inspired by Shaftesbury. The proceeds of this publication, as of his allegedly indecent novel Les Bijoux indiscrets (1748), were used to meet…
- Pensées sur l’interprétation de la nature (work by Diderot)
Denis Diderot: The Encyclopédie: …in 1754 he published the Pensées sur l’interprétation de la nature (“Thoughts on the Interpretation of Nature”), an influential short treatise on the new experimental methods in science. Diderot published few other works in his lifetime, however. His writings, in manuscript form, were known only to his friends and the…
- Pensieri politici (work by Russo)
Italy: The Italian republics of 1796–99: …described these events in his Pensieri politici (1798; “Political Meditations”), one of the most important examples of Italian Jacobin thought.
- Pensiero ed azione (newspaper)
Giuseppe Mazzini: Triumvir of republican Rome.: …journal in London: this was Pensiero ed azione (“Thought and Action”), a title reflecting his view that thought is only of value when it results in action. He did not participate in the Franco-Piedmontese war against Austria in 1859, by which Cavour with the help of Napoleon III vainly sought…
- pension (retirement benefit)
pension, series of periodic money payments made to a person who retires from employment because of age, disability, or the completion of an agreed span of service. The payments generally continue for the remainder of the natural life of the recipient, and sometimes to a widow or other survivor.
- Pension Protection Act (United States [2008])
John Boehner: House of Representatives: majority leader and minority leader: Boehner also introduced the Pension Protection Act in 2006 (signed into law in August 2008), which helped to prevent large failures in the pension system resulting from unwise investments. Boehner was elected to serve as his party’s majority leader in 2006 and served as minority leader since 2007. In…
- pensionaris (historical Dutch official)
pensionary, powerful political office in the Dutch Republic (United Provinces; 1579–1795). Pensionaries, originally the secretaries and legal advisers of the town corporations, were first appointed in the 15th century. They were members of the town delegations in the provincial States (assemblies).
- pensionary (historical Dutch official)
pensionary, powerful political office in the Dutch Republic (United Provinces; 1579–1795). Pensionaries, originally the secretaries and legal advisers of the town corporations, were first appointed in the 15th century. They were members of the town delegations in the provincial States (assemblies).
- Pensions and Savings, Bank for (bank, Spain)
Spain: Finance: …savings banks is the Barcelona-based La Caja de Ahorros y de Pensiones (the Bank for Pensions and Savings), popularly known as “La Caixa.” La Caixa is the largest shareholder in the CaixaBank financial group, proof that the boundary between savings banks and commercial banks had become somewhat blurry in the…
- Pensive (racehorse)
Pensive, (foaled 1941), American racehorse (Thoroughbred) who in 1944 won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes but lost at the Belmont Stakes, ending his bid for the coveted Triple Crown of American horse racing. Pensive was bred at Calumet Farm in Lexington, Kentucky, and owned by noted
- penstemon (plant genus)
penstemon, (genus Penstemon), genus herbaceous plants of the family Plantaginaceae (order Lamiales), containing about 270 species native to North America, particularly the western United States. The flowers are usually large and showy, tubular, and bilaterally symmetrical and have four fertile
- penstock (engineering)
Hoover Dam: …into huge steel pipes called penstocks. The water, after falling some 500 feet (150 metres) through the pipes to a hydroelectric power plant in the base of the dam, turns 17 Francis-type vertical hydraulic turbines, which rotate a series of electric generators that have a total power capacity of 2,080…
- penta (chemical compound)
full-cell process: …creosote, oil-based chemicals such as pentachlorophenol (PCP), and aqueous solutions of compounds such as chromated copper arsenate (CCA), ammoniacal copper zinc arsenate (ACZA), and copper azole (CA-B). Creosote, PCP, and CCA are used on heavy structural members such as railroad ties, utility poles, marine pilings, and bridge timbers; ACZA and…
- Pentaceratops (dinosaur genus)
Pentaceratops, (genus Pentaceratops), five-horned herbivorous dinosaur found as fossils in North America and possibly eastern Asia dating from the Late Cretaceous Period (about 100 million to 65.5 million years ago). Pentaceratops was about 6 metres (20 feet) long and had one horn on its snout, one
- Pentacerotidae (fish family)
perciform: Annotated classification: Family Pentacerotidae (pelagic armorheads) Resemble Chaetodontidae but with higher dorsal fin and much larger dorsal, anal, and pelvic spines; dorsal fin usually strongly elevated; head rough with exposed bony plates; snout usually elongated bearing small mouth at its end; lips with “hairy” skin. About 12 species,…
- pentachlorophenol (chemical compound)
full-cell process: …creosote, oil-based chemicals such as pentachlorophenol (PCP), and aqueous solutions of compounds such as chromated copper arsenate (CCA), ammoniacal copper zinc arsenate (ACZA), and copper azole (CA-B). Creosote, PCP, and CCA are used on heavy structural members such as railroad ties, utility poles, marine pilings, and bridge timbers; ACZA and…
- pentacle (symbol)
pentagram: …a symbol known as a pentacle. In these traditions the five points often represent the five elements of air, fire, water, earth, and spirit. For Wiccans the pentagram may also symbolize masculine and feminine, or the Triple Goddess (three points) and the Horned God (two points). Many Neo-Pagans consider the…
- Pentadaktylos Mountains (mountains, Cyprus)
Kyrenia Mountains, mountain range in northern Cyprus extending east to west for about 100 miles (160 km) from Cape Andreas, on the Karpas Peninsula, to Cape Kormakiti. Rising from the coast a short distance inland, the range flanks a narrow coastal plain and reaches a maximum height of 3,360 feet
- Pentadesma butyracea (tree)
tallow tree: …tree of Sierra Leone is Pentadesma butyracea, of the family Guttiferae (also called Clusiaceae).
- Pentadiplandraceae (plant family)
Brassicales: The Resedaceae group: Pentadiplandraceae is a small family (one genus with one or two species) of shrubs or lianas from Western Africa. The expanded petal bases are concave and coherent, forming a cavity, and each petal has a thin, free, more conventional-looking petal lobe with a very narrow…
- pentaerythritol tetranitrate (chemical compound)
PETN, a highly explosive organic compound belonging to the same chemical family as nitroglycerin and nitrocellulose. PETN has the chemical formula C5H8N4O12. It is prepared by reacting pentaerythritol (C5H12O4), an alcohol traditionally used in paints and varnishes, with nitric acid (HNO2). The
- Pentaglottis sempervirens (plant)
alkanet: …white-eyed blue flowers characterize the evergreen alkanet, or evergreen bugloss (Pentaglottis sempervirens), which reaches 1 metre (3.3 feet). All three species grow in fields and roadside waste spaces in Europe, and true alkanet has become naturalized in some areas of eastern North America.
- Pentagon (building, Arlington, Virginia, United States)
Pentagon, large five-sided building in Arlington county, Virginia, near Washington, D.C., that serves as the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense, including all three military services—Army, Navy, and Air Force. Constructed during 1941–43, the Pentagon was intended to consolidate the
- Pentagon Papers (United States history)
Pentagon Papers, papers that contain a history of the U.S. role in Indochina from World War II until May 1968 and that were commissioned in 1967 by U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara. They were turned over (without authorization) to The New York Times by Daniel Ellsberg, a senior research
- Pentagon system
military-industrial complex, network of individuals and institutions involved in the production of weapons and military technologies. The military-industrial complex in a country typically attempts to marshal political support for continued or increased military spending by the national government.
- pentagram (symbol)
pentagram, a five-pointed star, usually drawn by using one continuous line of five straight segments. It has been used throughout history as a symbol, often in magic or the occult. Its meaning has varied wildly over time, and it has functioned as a symbol of protection, of perfection, of the Devil,
- pentakosiomedimnoi (Greek social class)
ancient Greek civilization: The rejection of Cimon: …top two “Solonian” groups, the pentakosiomedimnoi and the cavalry class who were bracketed together on the one hand (as by Thucydides in one military context), while the zeugitai and thētes tended to be bracketed together on the other. No built-in class cleavage existed between the hoplite or zeugite class and…
- Pentamerida (brachiopods)
Silurian Period: Pentamerid communities: The Pentamerus community was an early Silurian community dominated by the large-shelled brachiopod (lamp shell) of the species Pentamerus oblongus. The community often included 5 to 20 associated species, although enormous populations of only one species sometimes are found preserved in growth position.…
- Pentamerista (plant genus)
Tetrameristaceae: …and the single species of Pentamerista grows in the Guiana Highlands of Venezuela. Both genera have spiral short-stalked leaves with indistinct venation and marginal glands and bear fleshy fruits that are presumably dispersed by animals. Tetramerista has glistening dots on the inner surfaces of the petals and sepals.
- Pentameron (work by Landor)
nonfictional prose: Dialogues: …his Imaginary Conversations (1824) and Pentameron (1837).
- pentamerone, Il (work by Basile)
Giambattista Basile: Basile’s collection, Lo cunto de li cunti (1634; “The Story of Stories”; best Italian translation B. Croce, 1925; best English translation N.B. Penzer, The Pentamerone, 2 vol., 1932), was published posthumously under the anagrammatic pseudonym Gian Alesio Abbattutis and referred to by its first editor as Il…
- Pentamerone, The (work by Basile)
Giambattista Basile: Basile’s collection, Lo cunto de li cunti (1634; “The Story of Stories”; best Italian translation B. Croce, 1925; best English translation N.B. Penzer, The Pentamerone, 2 vol., 1932), was published posthumously under the anagrammatic pseudonym Gian Alesio Abbattutis and referred to by its first editor as Il…
- Pentamerus oblongus (brachiopod)
Silurian Period: Pentamerid communities: … (lamp shell) of the species Pentamerus oblongus. The community often included 5 to 20 associated species, although enormous populations of only one species sometimes are found preserved in growth position. The Pentamerus community and its slightly older and younger equivalents dominated by similar pentamerid species in the genera Virgiana, Borealis,…
- pentameter (prosody)
pentameter, in poetry, a line of verse containing five metrical feet. In English verse, in which pentameter has been the predominant metre since the 16th century, the preferred foot is the iamb—i.e., an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one, represented in scansion as ˘ ´. Geoffrey Chaucer
- pentamide isethionate (drug)
antiprotozoal drug: …treatment of these diseases is pentamidine isethionate, which probably affects the parasite by binding to DNA.
- Pentanchidae (shark family)
cat shark: …span the families Scyliorhinidae and Pentanchidae. Some classifications, however, place all cat sharks in the family Scyliorhinidae. The genus Apristurus, which is made up of the demon cat sharks and ghost cat sharks, contains as many as 39 species and may be the most diverse shark genus known.
- pentane (chemical compound)
natural gas: Hydrocarbon content: butane, pentane, and hexane. In natural gas reservoirs even the heavier hydrocarbons occur for the most part in gaseous form because of the higher pressures. They usually liquefy at the surface (at atmospheric pressure) and are produced separately as natural gas liquids (NGLs), either in field…