• sigmoid colon (anatomy)

    sigmoid colon, a terminal section of the large intestine that connects the descending colon to the rectum; its function is to store fecal wastes until they are ready to leave the body. The sigmoid colon derives its name from the fact that it is curved in the form of an S (Greek sigma: σ). Its size

  • sigmoid colostomy (medicine)

    colostomy: A sigmoid colostomy, which is the most common type of permanent colostomy, requires no appliances (although a light pouch is sometimes worn for reassurance) and allows an individual to lead a life that is in every way normal except for the route of fecal evacuation.

  • sigmoid function (mathematics)

    sigmoid function, mathematical function that graphs as a distinctive S-shaped curve. The mathematical representation of the sigmoid function is an exponential equation of the formσ(x) = 1 (1 + e−x) ,where e is the constant that is the base of the natural logarithm function. Although there are many

  • sigmoidoscope (medical instrument)

    colorectal cancer: Diagnosis: …narrow, flexible tube called a sigmoidoscope to look at the lining of the rectum and the end of the colon. Colonoscopy uses a similar device to examine the entire colon. A biopsy may also be conducted in which abnormal tissue is removed by using the colonoscope and then examined under…

  • sigmoidoscopy (medicine)

    sigmoidoscopy, diagnostic medical procedure that uses a flexible fibre-optic endoscope to examine the rectum and the terminal section of the large intestine, known as the sigmoid colon. Fifty percent of all lesions in the lower intestines occur specifically in the rectum and sigmoid colon; they can

  • Sigmund Freud on psychoanalysis

    The term psychoanalysis was not indexed in the Encyclopædia Britannica until well into the 20th century. It occurs in the 12th edition (1922) in such articles as “Behaviorism” and “Psychotherapy.” The first treatment of psychoanalysis as a subject unto itself appeared in the 13th edition (1926),

  • Sigmurethra (gastropod order)

    gastropod: Classification: Order Sigmurethra Ureter originates near anterior margin of kidney, follows backward to posterior end, then reflexes forward along hindgut to open alongside anus; position greatly altered in sluglike forms; about 18,000 species. Suborder Holopodopes A group of 4 superfamilies. Superfamily Achatinacea

  • sign (advertising)

    sign, in marketing and advertising, device placed on or before a premises to identify its occupant and the nature of the business done there or, placed at a distance, to advertise a business or its products. The ancient Egyptians and Greeks used signs for advertising purposes, as did the Romans,

  • sign (medicine)

    human disease: Disease: signs and symptoms: Disease may be acute, chronic, malignant, or benign. Of these terms, chronic and acute have to do with the duration of a disease, malignant and benign with its potentiality for causing death.

  • sign (communications)

    communication: Signs: While signs are usually less germane to the development of words than signals, most of them contain greater amounts of meaning of and by themselves. Ashley Montagu, an anthropologist, has defined a sign as a “concrete denoter” possessing an inherent specific meaning, roughly analogous…

  • Sign Forest (highway landmark, Yukon, Canada)

    Watson Lake: The “Sign Forest” at Milepost 634.3, just east of Watson Lake, is an unusual collection of signposts that originated in 1942 with homesick Alaska Highway construction workers who erected signs bearing the names of and distances to their hometowns; the practice was carried on by tourists…

  • Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window, The (play by Hansberry)

    The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window, drama in three acts by Lorraine Hansberry, produced in 1964 and published the following year. The play concerns the nature of personal commitment to an ideal. The character Sidney Brustein is a disillusioned white Greenwich Village intellectual. Alton Scales, a

  • sign language (communications)

    sign language, any means of communication through bodily movements, especially of the hands and arms, used when spoken communication is impossible or not desirable. The practice is probably older than speech. Sign language may be as coarsely expressed as mere grimaces, shrugs, or pointings; or it

  • sign learning (psychology)

    pedagogy: Conditioning and behaviourist theories: Such an event is called sign learning, because, in knowing the sign for something, people to some extent make a response to the sign similar to that which they would make to the object itself. Learning new vocabularies, new terms and conventions, or algebraic and chemical symbols all involve some…

  • Sign of the Cross, The (film by DeMille [1932])

    Claudette Colbert: DeMille’s The Sign of the Cross (1932). As Poppaea, the wife of Nero (played campily by Charles Laughton) and “the wickedest woman in the world,” Colbert slinked about in revealing costumes, vamped costar Fredric March, and in one famous scene took a bath in what was…

  • Sign of the Pagan (film by Sirk [1954])

    Douglas Sirk: Films of the early to mid-1950s: Sign of the Pagan (1954) was a florid tale of Rome under attack by Attila the Hun (Jack Palance), and Captain Lightfoot (1955) starred Hudson as a rebellious early 19th-century Irish nationalist.

  • Sign of the Ram, The (film by Sturges [1948])

    John Sturges: Early work: The melodrama The Sign of the Ram (1948) featured a wheelchair-bound Susan Peters (who had been crippled in a real-life accident) as a manipulative wife and mother who uses her condition to control those around her. In 1949 Sturges made the first of his many westerns, The…

  • Sign on a Truck (work by Holzer)

    Jenny Holzer: Later work: …works recalled her 1984 series Sign on a Truck, wherein she projected a range of media, including her Truisms, onto a screen-mounted truck, which she had parked in New York City. In 2024 Holzer also revisited her 1989 installation at the Guggenheim Museum, New York, in which scrolling text from…

  • Sign, Project (American UFO panel)

    Project Blue Book: The first was Project Sign, a classified program that tried to explain a number of military-reported UFO sightings and determine whether they were extraterrestrial in origin, while also considering potential threats to national security, especially those related to possible espionage by the Soviet Union. Project Sign lasted from…

  • sign, road

    road: Traffic control: Signs advise the driver of special regulations and provide information about hazards and navigation. They are classified as regulatory signs, which provide notice of traffic laws and regulations (e.g., signs for speed limits and for stop, yield or give-way, and no entry); warning signs, which…

  • Signac, Paul (French painter)

    Paul Signac was a French painter who, with Georges Seurat, developed the technique called pointillism. When he was 18, Signac gave up the study of architecture for painting and, through Armand Guillaumin, became a convert to the coloristic principles of Impressionism. In 1884 Signac helped found

  • signal (communications)

    communication: Signals: A signal may be considered as an interruption in a field of constant energy transfer. An example is the dots and dashes that open and close the electromagnetic field of a telegraph circuit. Such interruptions do not require the construction of a man-made field;…

  • Signal (private messaging app)

    Signal, private messaging app operated by the nonprofit organization Signal Foundation, based in San Francisco. Signal users can exchange text and voice messages, hold voice and video calls, send photos and videos, and communicate in group chats. The service can be accessed via a smartphone or

  • signal communication (communications)

    communication: Signals: A signal may be considered as an interruption in a field of constant energy transfer. An example is the dots and dashes that open and close the electromagnetic field of a telegraph circuit. Such interruptions do not require the construction of a man-made field;…

  • Signal Communication by Orbiting Relay Equipment (United States government project)

    aerospace industry: The space age: …1958, in a program called Project SCORE, the U.S. Air Force launched the first low-orbiting communications satellite, premiering the transmission of the human voice from space. Others followed, initiating a rapidly growing national and international telecommunications satellite industry (see satellite communication).

  • signal communications (communications)

    communication: Signals: A signal may be considered as an interruption in a field of constant energy transfer. An example is the dots and dashes that open and close the electromagnetic field of a telegraph circuit. Such interruptions do not require the construction of a man-made field;…

  • Signal Companies, Inc., The (American technology corporation)

    The Signal Companies, Inc., former American conglomerate corporation engaged mostly in automotive and aerospace engineering, energy development, and environmental improvement. It became part of AlliedSignal in 1985. The company was incorporated in 1928 as the Signal Oil and Gas Company to continue

  • Signal Corps (United States Army)

    Signal Corps, branch of the U.S. Army whose mission is to manage all aspects of communications and information systems support. The Signal Corps was officially established as a branch of the U.S. Army in March 1863. At the beginning of its involvement in the American Civil War, the Signal Corps

  • signal energy (sound)

    loudspeaker: …converting electrical energy into acoustical signal energy that is radiated into a room or open air. The term signal energy indicates that the electrical energy has a specific form, corresponding, for example, to speech, music, or any other signal in the range of audible frequencies (roughly 20 to 20,000 hertz).…

  • signal generator (electronics)

    signal generator, electronic test instrument that delivers an accurately calibrated signal at frequencies from the audio to the microwave ranges. It is valuable in the development and testing of electronic hardware. The signal generator provides a signal that can be adjusted according to frequency,

  • Signal Hill (mountain, South Africa)

    Cape Town: The city site: … and Lion’s Rump (later called Signal Hill), on the north by Table Bay, on the south by Devil’s Peak, and on the east by marshlands and the sandy Cape Flats beyond. The nearest tillable land was on the lower eastern slopes of Devil’s Peak and Table Mountain and, farther to…

  • Signal Hill Historic Park (historical site, Saint John’s, Newfoundland, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada)

    St. John’s: Signal Hill Historic Park, once a location for signaling the approach of ships, memorializes several events, including John Cabot’s presumed landfall (commemorated by a tower [1897]); the French-English struggle for Newfoundland that ended in 1762 with the last shot fired on the hill (remnants of…

  • signal line (fishing)

    commercial fishing: Fish finding: Herring fishermen used signal lines to find their prey in deep waters. These were long wires dropped from a boat; the fisherman holding the line in his hand could feel the vibration caused by the fish touching the line, which was named the herring’s telephone. Other fish were…

  • signal processing (communications)

    radar: Signal and data processors: The signal processor is the part of the receiver that extracts the desired target signal from unwanted clutter. It is not unusual for these undesired reflections to be much larger than desired target echoes, in some cases more than one million times larger. Large clutter echoes…

  • signal recognition particle (molecule)

    cell: The rough endoplasmic reticulum: …RNA molecule known as the signal recognition particle (SRP). The SRP also binds to the ribosome to halt further formation of the protein. The membrane of the ER contains receptor sites that bind the SRP-ribosome complex to the RER membrane. Upon binding, translation resumes, with the SRP dissociating from the…

  • signal tower (military communications)

    Great Wall of China: Signal towers: Signal towers were also called beacons, beacon terraces, smoke mounds, mounds, or kiosks. They were used to send military communications: beacon (fires or lanterns) during the night or smoke signals in the daytime; other methods such as raising banners, beating clappers, or firing…

  • signal transduction (biochemistry)

    chemoreception: Cellular mechanisms in chemoreception: …cellular response is known as signal transduction.

  • signal troop (military)

    tactics: The armoured offensive: …one another, the Germans added signal troops (they were the first to develop a comprehensive mobile communication system based on two-way radio) as well as a headquarters. Thus, they created the first armoured divisions, which from 1940 became the very symbol of military might.

  • signal wave form (electronics)

    television: Distortion and interference: The signal wave form that makes up a television picture signal embodies all the picture information to be transmitted from camera to receiver screen as well as the synchronizing information required to keep the receiver and transmitter scanning operations in exact step with each other. The…

  • signal-to-noise ratio (communications)

    electronic music: Computer sound synthesis: …are low enough for the signal-to-noise ratio to exceed commercial standards (55 to 70 decibels).

  • signaling (behavior)

    A. Michael Spence: …developed the theory of “signaling” to show how better-informed individuals in the market communicate their information to the less-well-informed to avoid the problems associated with adverse selection. In his 1973 seminal paper “Job Market Signaling,” Spence demonstrated how a college degree signals a job seeker’s intelligence and ability to…

  • Signaling System 7 (communications)

    telephone: Out-of-band signaling: …America, CCITT-7 was implemented as Signaling System 7, or SS7.

  • Signals (album by Rush)

    Rush: Rise to fame: ” Signals (1982) includes Rush’s most successful U.S. single, “New World Man.” Subsequent albums released in the 1980s, which drew closer to the pop genre, rely heavily on synthesizer effects characteristic of the decade.

  • signals intelligence

    electronic warfare: …communications, which is known as signals intelligence (SIGINT) gathering. The purpose of jamming is to limit an enemy’s ability to exchange information by overriding radio transmissions or by sending signals to prevent radar detection or convey false information. Intelligence gathering has grown more significant in direct relation to the increased…

  • signature (book)

    bookbinding: …first folded into sections, or signatures (delivered often as folded sections of 64 pages, or as two 32-page sections, or as four 16-page sections). End sheets (or papers) may be attached to the first and last sections of the book, and systems are designed to sew sections together or fasten…

  • signature quilt (American soft furnishing)

    quilting: The golden age of American quilts: …as did its contemporary, the signature, or album, quilt, in which each block was made and signed by a different maker and the quilt given as a keepsake, for example, to a bride by her friends, to the minister by the women of the congregation, or to a young man…

  • Signes (France)

    Côte d’Azur: Signes, in Var, commemorates St. Eligius during the fourth week in June, and the sailors of Antibes honour St. Peter in late June. Menton hosts a festival of lemons in February; floats are decked with lemons and oranges.

  • signet (seal)

    sigillography: Seals in antiquity: …type until replaced by the signet ring in Roman times. In the Aegean, various types of stamp seals were used throughout the 2nd and much of the 1st millennium bc, until in Hellenistic and Roman times the signet ring became dominant.

  • Signet Office (chancery)

    diplomatics: The English royal chancery: …of the 14th century, the Signet Office was established, so called after the small seal (signet). The king’s secretary was also the head of this office. All these shifts made the issuing of royal documents increasingly complicated. From the end of the 14th century, the common procedure involved, first, the…

  • signet ring (jewelry)

    Fisherman’s Ring: signet ring that is presented to the pope—the leader of the Roman Catholic Church—at his papal inauguration. Its standard design shows an image of St. Peter the Apostle with the reigning pope’s name inscribed above it. It was formerly used as a seal for the…

  • significance

    meaning, In philosophy and linguistics, the sense of a linguistic expression, sometimes understood in contrast to its referent. For example, the expressions “the morning star” and “the evening star” have different meanings, though their referent (Venus) is the same. Some expressions have meanings

  • Significance of History, The (work by Turner)

    Frederick Jackson Turner: …his first professional paper, “The Significance of History” (1891), which contains the famous line “Each age writes the history of the past anew with reference to the conditions uppermost in its own time.” The controversial notion that there was no fixed historical truth, and that all historical interpretation should…

  • Significance of Sections in American History, The (work by Turner)

    Frederick Jackson Turner: …in American History (1920) and The Significance of Sections in American History (1932), for which he was posthumously awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1933. In these writings Turner promoted new methods in historical research, including the techniques of the newly founded social sciences, and urged his colleagues to study new…

  • Significance of the Increased Size of the Cerebrum in Recent as Compared with Extinct Animals, The (work by Lankester)

    Sir Edwin Ray Lankester: In “The Significance of the Increased Size of the Cerebrum in Recent as Compared with Extinct Animals” (1899), Lankester emphasized that an inherited ability to learn, allowing cultural advances to be transmitted between generations socially, was an important factor in human evolution. His discovery of flint…

  • significance test (statistics)

    statistics: Significance testing: In a regression study, hypothesis tests are usually conducted to assess the statistical significance of the overall relationship represented by the regression model and to test for the statistical significance of the individual parameters. The statistical tests used are based on the following…

  • significance, level of (statistics)

    statistics: Hypothesis testing: …type I error, called the level of significance for the test. Common choices for the level of significance are α = 0.05 and α = 0.01. Although most applications of hypothesis testing control the probability of making a type I error, they do not always control the probability of making…

  • significant digits

    significant figures, any of the digits of a number beginning with the digit farthest to the left that is not zero and ending with the last digit farthest to the right that is either not zero or that is a zero but is considered to be exact. Significant figures are used to report a value, measured or

  • significant figures

    significant figures, any of the digits of a number beginning with the digit farthest to the left that is not zero and ending with the last digit farthest to the right that is either not zero or that is a zero but is considered to be exact. Significant figures are used to report a value, measured or

  • significant form (art)

    Clive Bell: …was the theory of “significant form,” as described in his books Art (1914) and Since Cézanne (1922). He asserted that purely formal qualities—i.e., the relationships and combinations of lines and colours—are the most important elements in works of art. The aesthetic emotion aroused in the viewer by a painting…

  • Significant Others (work by Maupin)

    Armistead Maupin: …the City (1982), Babycakes (1984), Significant Others (1987), and Sure of You (1989), all but the last of which were initially serialized in San Francisco newspapers. Maupin chronicled the later vicissitudes and triumphs of his characters in Michael Tolliver Lives (2007), Mary Ann in Autumn (2010), and The Days of…

  • signifyin’ (sociology)

    Henry Louis Gates, Jr.: Signifyin’: Gates developed the notion of signifyin’ in Figures in Black: Words, Signs, and the “Racial” Self (1987) and The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of Afro-American Literary Criticism (1988). Signifyin’ is the practice of representing an idea indirectly, through a commentary that is often humorous, boastful, insulting, or provocative. Gates argued…

  • Signifying Monkey: Towards a Theory of Afro-American Literary Criticism, The (critical work by Gates)

    Henry Louis Gates, Jr.: Signifyin’: …the “Racial” Self (1987) and The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of Afro-American Literary Criticism (1988). Signifyin’ is the practice of representing an idea indirectly, through a commentary that is often humorous, boastful, insulting, or provocative. Gates argued that the pervasiveness and centrality of signifyin’ in African and African American literature…

  • Signorelli, Luca (Italian painter)

    Luca Signorelli was a Renaissance painter, best known for his nudes and for his novel compositional devices. It is likely that Signorelli was a pupil of Piero della Francesca in the 1460s. The first certain surviving work by him, a fragmentary fresco (1474) now in the museum at Città di Castello,

  • Signorelli, Luca d’Egidio di Ventura de’ (Italian painter)

    Luca Signorelli was a Renaissance painter, best known for his nudes and for his novel compositional devices. It is likely that Signorelli was a pupil of Piero della Francesca in the 1460s. The first certain surviving work by him, a fragmentary fresco (1474) now in the museum at Città di Castello,

  • Signoret, Henri (French theatrical manager)

    puppetry: Styles of puppet theatre: …to Paris in 1888 when Henri Signoret founded the Little Theatre; this theatre used rod puppets mounted on a base that ran on rails below the stage, the movement of the limbs being controlled by strings attached to pedals. The plays presented were pieces by classic authors—Cervantes, Aristophanes, Shakespeare—and new…

  • Signoret, Simone (French actress)

    Simone Signoret was a French actress known for her portrayal of fallen romantic heroines and headstrong older women. Her tumultuous marriage to actor Yves Montand and the couple’s championing of several left-wing causes often provoked controversy and brought her notoriety. Born in Germany to French

  • signoria (Italian medieval government)

    signoria, (Italian: “lordship”), in the medieval and Renaissance Italian city-states, a government run by a signore (lord, or despot) that replaced republican institutions either by force or by agreement. It was the characteristic form of government in Italy from the middle of the 13th century

  • Signoria, Palazzo della (palace, Florence, Italy)

    Palazzo Vecchio, most important historic government building in Florence, having been the seat of the Signoria of the Florentine Republic in the 14th century and then the government centre of the Medici grand dukes of Tuscany. From 1865 to 1871 it housed the Chamber of Deputies of the Kingdom of

  • Signorini, Francesca (Italian composer and singer)

    Francesca Caccini was an Italian composer and singer who was one of only a handful of women in 17th-century Europe whose compositions were published. The most significant of her compositions—published and unpublished—were produced during her employment at the Medici court in Florence. Francesca

  • Signorini, Telemaco (Italian artist)

    Macchiaioli: …were the critic and theoretician Telemaco Signorini (1853–1901), who used colour with great sensitivity in his usually socially conscious scenes; Silvestro Lega (1826–95), who combined a clearly articulated handling of colour patches with a poetic feeling for his subject; and Raffaello Sernesi (1838–66) and Giuseppe Abbati (1836–68), both of whom…

  • Signorini-Malaspina, Francesca (Italian composer and singer)

    Francesca Caccini was an Italian composer and singer who was one of only a handful of women in 17th-century Europe whose compositions were published. The most significant of her compositions—published and unpublished—were produced during her employment at the Medici court in Florence. Francesca

  • Signs (film by Shyamalan [2002])

    M. Night Shyamalan: …that he possesses special powers; Signs (2002), a science-fiction thriller about a preacher (Mel Gibson) who, after losing his faith, must contend with an alien invasion; and The Village (2004), a Gothic tale about an isolated community that guards itself from unknown forces in the woods beyond. Shyamalan’s subsequent films,…

  • Signs of Fire (work by Sena)

    Portuguese literature: After 1974: …published Sinais de fogo (1978; Signs of Fire), an impressive novel about the effects in Portugal of the Spanish Civil War (1936–39). J. Cardoso Pires based Balada da praia dos cães (1982; Ballad of Dogs’ Beach) on the account of a political assassination. The novels that constitute Almeida Faria’s Tetralogia…

  • Signs of Life (film by Coles [1989])

    Mary-Louise Parker: …appeared in her first film, Signs of Life, a drama in which she portrayed an abused girlfriend. This and later roles led some to describe her as the “long-suffering girl next door.” In 1990 Parker made her Broadway debut in Prelude to a Kiss, and her performance as Rita—a young…

  • Signs of the Times (work by Bunsen)

    Christian Karl Josias, baron von Bunsen: (1855; Signs of the Times), defended religious and personal freedom at a time when reaction was triumphant in Europe.

  • Signy Island (island, South Atlantic Ocean)

    South Orkney Islands: …are barren and uninhabited, but Signy Island is used as a base for Antarctic exploration. George Powell (British) and Nathaniel Palmer (American), both sealers, sighted and charted the islands in December 1821.

  • Sigourney, L.H. (American author)

    L.H. Sigourney was a popular writer, known as “the sweet singer of Hartford,” who was one of the first American women to succeed at a literary career. Lydia Huntley worked as a schoolteacher and published her first work, Moral Pieces in Prose and Verse, in 1815. After her marriage in 1819 to

  • Sigourney, Lydia Howard (American author)

    L.H. Sigourney was a popular writer, known as “the sweet singer of Hartford,” who was one of the first American women to succeed at a literary career. Lydia Huntley worked as a schoolteacher and published her first work, Moral Pieces in Prose and Verse, in 1815. After her marriage in 1819 to

  • Sigsbee Deep (submarine feature, Gulf of Mexico)

    Gulf of Mexico / Gulf of America: Physiography and geology: …in the Mexico Basin (Sigsbee Deep), which is 17,070 feet (5,203 meters) below sea level. From the floor of the basin rise the Sigsbee Knolls, some of which attain heights of 1,300 feet (400 meters); these are surface expressions of the buried salt domes.

  • Sigsbee Knolls (salt domes, Gulf of Mexico)

    Mexico Basin: …middle of the basin, the Sigsbee Knolls form a series of hills that are believed to be reflections of underlying salt domes rising above the generally flat basin floor.

  • sigui (religious ceremony)

    Dogon: …by a ceremony called the sigui, which occurs when the star Sirius appears between two mountain peaks. Before the ceremony, young men go into seclusion for three months, during which they talk in a secret language. The general ceremony rests on the belief that some 3,000 years ago amphibious beings…

  • Siguiri (Guinea)

    Siguiri, town, northeastern Guinea. A port on the Niger River, it lies at the intersection of roads from Bamako (Mali), Kankan, and Dinguiraye and is 5 miles (8 km) north of the confluence of the Tinkisso River with the Niger. Siguiri is the chief market town for the cattle, corn (maize), millet,

  • Sigurd (Germanic literary hero)

    Siegfried, figure from the heroic literature of the ancient Germanic people. He appears in both German and Old Norse literature, although the versions of his stories told by these two branches of the Germanic tradition do not always agree. He plays a part in the story of Brunhild, in which he meets

  • Sigurd I Magnusson (king of Norway)

    Sigurd I Magnusson was the king of Norway (1103–30) and the first Scandinavian king to participate in the Crusades. He strengthened the Norwegian church by building cathedrals and monasteries and by imposing tithes, which provided a reliable source of income for the clergy. An illegitimate son of

  • Sigurd II (king of Norway)

    Inge I Haraldsson: …jointly with his half brother, Sigurd II, at their father’s death. The brothers and their supporters then defeated the forces of Sigurd Slembi and the former ruler Magnus IV the Blind, who were both pretenders to the throne. In 1142 Inge and Sigurd II were joined by Eystein, who also…

  • Sigurd Jerusalemfarer (king of Norway)

    Sigurd I Magnusson was the king of Norway (1103–30) and the first Scandinavian king to participate in the Crusades. He strengthened the Norwegian church by building cathedrals and monasteries and by imposing tithes, which provided a reliable source of income for the clergy. An illegitimate son of

  • Sigurd Jorsalfare (king of Norway)

    Sigurd I Magnusson was the king of Norway (1103–30) and the first Scandinavian king to participate in the Crusades. He strengthened the Norwegian church by building cathedrals and monasteries and by imposing tithes, which provided a reliable source of income for the clergy. An illegitimate son of

  • Sigurd the Crusader (king of Norway)

    Sigurd I Magnusson was the king of Norway (1103–30) and the first Scandinavian king to participate in the Crusades. He strengthened the Norwegian church by building cathedrals and monasteries and by imposing tithes, which provided a reliable source of income for the clergy. An illegitimate son of

  • Sigurðardóttir, Jóhanna (prime minister of Iceland)

    Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir was an Icelandic politician who served as prime minister of Iceland from 2009 to 2013. She was the country’s first female prime minister and the world’s first openly gay head of government (Per-Kristian Foss served briefly as acting prime minister of Norway in 2002).

  • Sigurdsson, Jón (Icelandic statesman)

    Jón Sigurdsson was an Icelandic scholar and statesman who collected and edited many Old Norse sagas and documents. He was also the leader of the 19th-century struggle for Icelandic self-government under Denmark. Sigurdsson was educated in classical philology, ancient history, and political theory

  • Sigurdsson, Sverrir (king of Norway)

    Sverrir Sigurdsson, was the king of Norway (1177–1202) and one of the best-known figures in medieval Norwegian history. By expanding the power of the monarchy and limiting the privileges of the church, he provoked civil uprisings that were not quelled until 1217. The son of Gunnhild, a Norwegian

  • Sigurimi (police organization, Albania)

    Albania: The Stalinist state: …State Security, known as the Sigurimi. To eliminate dissent, the government periodically resorted to purges, in which opponents were subjected to public criticism, dismissed from their jobs, imprisoned in forced-labour camps, or executed. Travel abroad was forbidden to all but those on official business. In 1967 the religious establishment, which…

  • Sigurjónsson, Jóhann (Icelandic writer)

    Jóhann Sigurjónsson was an Icelandic playwright who became internationally famous for one play, Fjalla-Eyvindur (1911; Danish Bjærg-Ejvind og hans hustru, 1911; Eyvind of the Mountains; filmed 1917, by Victor Sjöström), which created a sensation in Scandinavia and in Germany and was later produced

  • Sigvatr (Norwegian poet)

    Icelandic literature: Skaldic verse: …of Norwegian kings, as did Sigvatr, counselor and court poet of Olaf II of Norway. Although the complexity of skaldic poetry has limited its modern readership, the orally transmitted poems of the 10th and 11th centuries became valuable sources for Icelandic historians in the following centuries.

  • Sihamoni, Norodom (king of Cambodia)

    Norodom Sihamoni is the king of Cambodia who succeeded his father, King Norodom Sihanouk, in October 2004 after Sihanouk abdicated the throne. Sihamoni was the elder of Sihanouk’s two sons with his last queen, Monineath. At the time of Sihamoni’s birth, Cambodia was becoming independent of France

  • Sihanouk, Norodom (king of Cambodia)

    Norodom Sihanouk was twice king of Cambodia (1941–55 and 1993–2004), who also served as prime minister, head of state, and president. He attempted to steer a neutral course for Cambodia in its civil and foreign wars of the late 20th century. Sihanouk was, on his mother’s side, the grandson of King

  • Sihanoukville (Cambodia)

    Sihanoukville, city, autonomous municipality, and the only deepwater port of Cambodia, situated on a peninsula of the Gulf of Thailand. It is the capital of Preah Sihanouk province in southwestern Cambodia. Formerly known as Kampong Saom (Khmer: “Port of the Moon” or “Port of Shiva”), the city was

  • Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone

    Sihanoukville: Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone: …became the center of the Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone (SSEZ), a joint venture between the Cambodian and Chinese governments. After the launch of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2013, the SSEZ was showcased as a flagship BRI project, transforming the city from a sleepy beach town into an…

  • sīḥarfī (poetry)

    Islamic arts: Other poetic forms: …folk poetry, such as the sīḥarfī (“golden alphabet”), in which each line or each stanza begins with succeeding letters of the Arabic alphabet. In Muslim India the barahmasa (“12 months”) is a sort of lovers’ calendar in which the poet, assuming the role of a young woman of longing, expresses…

  • Sihine, Sileshi (Ethiopian athlete)

    Tirunesh Dibaba: …men’s 10,000-meter Olympic silver medalist Sileshi Sihine. Injuries curtailed her activities during 2009–11. Several months after her triumphant return to the medals podium at the 2012 London Olympics—in addition to her gold in the 10,000 meters, she won a bronze in the 5,000 meters—she made her half-marathon debut in the…