Ralph Nelson: Nelson reteamed with Poitier on The Wilby Conspiracy (1975), which was set in South Africa during the apartheid era. Poitier portrayed an activist who joins up with a wanted Englishman as both try to evade law officers; while the film briefly touched on social issues, it was basically a chase…

John Wilbye was an English composer, one of the finest madrigalists of his time. Wilbye was the son of a successful farmer and landowner. His musical abilities early attracted the notice of the local gentry. Sir Thomas Kytson of nearby Hengrave Hall, Bury St. Edmunds, was especially interested, and

the Wiggles: …Cook, and classical music composer Phillip Wilcher for the project.

Tom Wilcher, fictional character, protagonist and narrator of the novel To Be a Pilgrim (1942), the second novel in a trilogy by Joyce

Wilco, American band led by singer-songwriter Jeff Tweedy that spun off from the group Uncle Tupelo in the mid-1990s and evolved from its alternative country roots into one of the most successful and multifaceted rock groups of its time. Following the bitter breakup of Uncle Tupelo, which had been

Wilco: … (2007) and the career-spanning compendium Wilco (The Album), released in 2009. On a track from the latter, “Wilco (The Song),” Tweedy even demonstrated a sense of humor, singing, “Wilco will love you, baby.”

Ella Wheeler Wilcox was an American poet and journalist who is perhaps best remembered for verse tinged with an eroticism that, while rather oblique, was still unconventional for her time. Ella Wheeler from an early age was an avid reader of popular literature, especially the novels of E.D.E.N.

Forbidden Planet: Production notes and credits:

Hollywood: …real-estate subdivision in 1887 by Harvey Wilcox, a prohibitionist from Kansas who envisioned a community based on his sober religious principles. Real-estate magnate H.J. Whitley, known as the “Father of Hollywood,” subsequently transformed Hollywood into a wealthy and popular residential area. At the turn of the 20th century, Whitley was…

Dame Anna Neagle was a British actress and dancer, known for her work in stage plays, musicals, and films. Her motion-picture career was guided by her husband, producer-director Herbert Wilcox. Neagle debuted as a dancer in The Wonder Tales (London, 1917). Her first real lead was as a juvenile with

Admonition to Parliament: …London clergymen John Field and Thomas Wilcox, that demanded that Queen Elizabeth I restore the “purity” of New Testament worship in the Church of England and eliminate the remaining Roman Catholic elements and practices from the Church of England. Reflecting wide Presbyterian influence among Puritans, the admonition advocated greater direct…

statistics: Nonparametric methods: The Wilcoxon signed-rank test can be used to test hypotheses about two populations. In collecting data for this test, each element or experimental unit in the sample must generate two paired or matched data values, one from population 1 and one from population 2. Differences between…

Polab: …principalities, the Obodrites and the Lutycy, or Wilcy. The many Lutycy tribes, of which the Ratarowie and Stodoranie (Hawolanie) were the most important, were subdued by Lothar of Saxony and Albert the Bear of Brandenburg in the 12th century. The other Polab groups were also subjugated by the Germans in…

Frank Wilczek is an American physicist who, with David J. Gross and H. David Politzer, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2004 for discoveries regarding the strong force—the nuclear force that binds together quarks (the smallest building blocks of matter) and holds together the nucleus of

Ben Okri: Other volumes of poetry included Wild (2012), Rise Like Lions: Poetry for the Many (2018), and A Fire in My Head: Poems for the Dawn (2021). His short-story collections from this time included Prayer for the Living (2019). A Way of Being Free (1997) and A Time for New Dreams…

Laura Dern: …lead character (Reese Witherspoon) in Wild (2014).

comet: Spacecraft exploration of comets: …dust from the coma of Comet 81P/Wild 2. At a flyby speed of 6.1 km per second (13,600 miles per hour), the dust samples would be completely destroyed by impact with a hard collector. Therefore, Stardust used a material made of silica (sand) called aerogel that had a very low…

spicebush, (Lindera benzoin), deciduous, dense shrub of the laurel family (Lauraceae), native to eastern North America. It occurs most often in damp woods and grows about 1.5–6 m (about 5–20 feet) tall. The alternate leaves are rather oblong, but wedge-shaped near the base, and 8–13 cm (3–5 inches)

Roger Corman: Other cult classic films: The Wild Angels (1966) was a sordid biker film that was based on the exploits of the Hells Angels and starred Peter Fonda, Bruce Dern, and Nancy Sinatra. The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre (1967) was a relatively faithful account of the notorious 1929 slaughter, starring…

circus: Wild animal acts: Until the late 20th century there was a marked difference between European and American styles of presenting wild animal acts. In the 19th century Van Amburgh, believing that the trainer must demonstrate physical superiority over his “pupils,” had customarily beat his animals…

Ernest Thompson Seton: …into his most popular book, Wild Animals I Have Known (1898). He continued to write such books into the 1940s.

ass, either of two species belonging to the horse family, Equidae, especially the African wild ass (Equus africanus) sometimes referred to as the true ass. The related Asiatic wild ass, sometimes called the Asian wild ass or the half-ass (E. hemionus), is usually known by the local names of its

The Wild Ass’s Skin, novel by Honoré de Balzac, published in two volumes in 1831 as La Peau de chagrin and later included as part of the Études philosophiques section of La Comédie humaine (The Human Comedy). A poor young writer, Raphael de Valentin, is given a magical ass’s skin that will grant

David Lynch: Wild at Heart (1990), Lynch’s adaptation of Barry Gifford’s novel about a young couple who take to the road, pursued by various hit men, won the Palm d’Or at the Cannes film festival. However, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992), a prequel to the…

Bactrian camel: …the steppes of Mongolia; the wild Bactrian camel (also known as the wild camel, C. ferus) is limited to a few small pockets in China and Mongolia. Both Bactrian camels are distinguished from Arabian camels, or dromedaries (C. dromedarius), of North Africa and the Middle East by their short stature,…

groundnut: …nut; Apois americana, also called wild bean and potato bean, the tubers of which are edible; and Lathyrus tuberosa, also called earth-nut pea. Cyperus esculentus, nut sedge or yellow nut grass, is a papyrus relative (family Cyperaceae) that also bears edible tubers, especially in the variety called chufa or earth…

Monarda: M. fistulosa, growing to 1.5 m (5 feet) tall, has a minty aroma. The more sharply scented Oswego tea (M. didyma), shorter and with scarlet flowers, is native in eastern North America but is widely cultivated elsewhere.

Yevgeny Yevtushenko: …and published in English as Wild Berries in 1984; that same year, a novella, Ardabiola, appeared in English translation. In 1978 he embarked on an acting career, and in 1981 a book of his photographs, Invisible Threads, was published. He published more poetry in The Collected Poems, 1952–1990 (1991), The…

Christina Applegate: Married… with Children and other early roles: … (1991), Across the Moon (1994), Wild Bill (1995), and Mars Attacks! (1996).

bleeding heart: …as the shorter eastern, or wild, bleeding heart (D. eximia), which produces sprays of small pink flowers from April to September in the Allegheny mountain region of eastern North America. The Pacific, or western, bleeding heart (D. formosa) of mountain woods, which ranges from California to British Columbia, has several…

wild boar, any of the wild members of the pig species Sus scrofa (family Suidae, order Artiodactyla), the ancestors of domestic pigs. See

boar, any of the wild members of the pig species Sus scrofa, family Suidae. The term boar is also used to designate the male of the domestic pig, guinea pig, and various other mammals. The term wild boar, or wild pig, is sometimes used to refer to any wild member of the Sus genus. The wild

Jean-Marc-Gaspard Itard: …le sauvage de l’Aveyron (1807; Reports on the Savage of Aveyron), he explained the methods that he used (1801–05) in trying to train and educate an unsocialized 11-year-old boy who had been found in a forest in Aveyron, south of Paris.

William Wellman: Films of the early to mid-1930s: …turning to the pre-Code gem Wild Boys of the Road (1933), a message film in the best Warner Brothers tradition about three Great Depression-ravaged kids who take to the road in search of a better life.

William S. Burroughs: …them The Soft Machine (1961), The Wild Boys (1971), Exterminator! (1973), Cities of the Red Night (1981), Place of Dead Roads (1983), The Western Lands (1987), and My Education: A Book of Dreams (1995)—Burroughs further experimented with the structure of the novel. Burroughs (1983), by filmmaker

Luis Firpo was an Argentine professional boxer. (Read Gene Tunney’s 1929 Britannica essay on boxing.) Firpo moved to the United States in 1922 after having compiled an outstanding record during the first three years of his career in South America. He won his first 10 American matches by knockout

Wild Bunch, a collection of cowboy-outlaws who flourished in the 1880s and ’90s in Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, and surrounding states and territories. Their chief hideouts were Hole in the Wall, a nearly inaccessible grassy canyon and rocky retreat in north-central Wyoming; Brown’s Hole (now Brown’s

The Wild Bunch, American western film, released in 1969, that is a classic of the genre and widely considered Sam Peckinpah’s finest movie. Although the film’s graphic violence caused much controversy at the time of its release, the climactic shoot-out is arguably the best-directed and

calla: …known as the arum lily, water arum, or wild calla. It occurs widely in wet places in cool north temperate and subarctic regions and grows readily in mud or shallow water along pond edges or watercourses. A handsome plant, it has heart-shaped leaves, showy white floral leaves (spathes), and clusters…

Bactrian camel: …the steppes of Mongolia; the wild Bactrian camel (also known as the wild camel, C. ferus) is limited to a few small pockets in China and Mongolia. Both Bactrian camels are distinguished from Arabian camels, or dromedaries (C. dromedarius), of North Africa and the Middle East by their short stature,…

American goldfinch, (Spinus tristis), small acrobatic songbird native to North America. Males are known for their distinctive, bright yellow plumage that contrasts with their black tail, cap, and wings. They are also known for their call, a vocalization that sounds like “po-ta-to-chip” or

sugarcane: Breeding: For example, the wild cane S. spontaneum contains little sugar, and it is immune to most diseases; it has been used extensively by breeders to improve commercial varieties.

Phacelia: …similar areas the closely related California bluebell, or wild Canterbury bell (P. whitlavia), has urn-shaped blooms.

poker: Cards: …certain cards may be designated wild cards. A wild card stands for any other card its holder wishes to name. There are many methods of introducing wild cards into the game. The most popular are:

baseball: Movement and expansion: …an additional round and a Wild Card (the team with the best record among the non-division-winning teams in each league). The play-offs were again expanded in 2012, when a second Wild Card was added to each league. ***Under the revised system, the two Wild Card teams play a one-game play-off,…

Queen Anne’s lace, (Daucus carota carota), biennial subspecies of plant in the parsley family (Apiaceae) that is an ancestor of the cultivated carrot. It grows to 1.5 metres (5 feet) tall and has bristly, divided leaves. It bears umbels (flat-topped clusters) of white or pink flowers with a single

wild cashew, (Anacardium excelsum), tropical forest tree of the cashew family (Anacardiaceae), native to Central and South America. Wild cashew trees are characteristic of both secondary and old growth forests. As its name suggests, the wild cashew is closely related to the domesticated cashew

Australian literature: Literature from 1970 to 2000: …questioned) published his first novel, Wild Cat Falling, in 1965. Jack Davis wrote several acclaimed plays. Sally Morgan’s autobiography, My Place (1987), is a moving account of her discovery of her identity and family history. It is also social and cultural history. And Kim Scott, with his novel Benang (1999),…

chinquapin: …or giant, evergreen chinquapin (Chrysolepis chrysophylla), is native to western North America. It may be 45 metres (148 feet) tall and has lance-shaped leaves about 15 cm (6 inches) long, coated beneath with golden-yellow scales. The bush, or Sierra evergreen, chinquapin (Chrysolepis sempervirens) is a small spreading mountain shrub…

feral children, children who, through either accident or deliberate isolation, have grown up with limited human contact. Such children have often been seen as inhabiting a boundary zone between human and animal existence; for this reason the motif of the child reared by animals is a recurring theme

Canellales: Economic and ecological importance: …West Indian Canella alba (wild cinnamon), known sometimes by the synonym C. winterana, have some use as a condiment and for medicinal purposes. It has been used to flavour tobacco and as a fish poison. The timber is known as Bahama whitewood. The trees of this species are cultivated…

Guyana: Early history: …region long known as the Wild Coast. It was the Dutch who finally began European settlement, establishing trading posts upriver in about 1580. By the mid-17th century the Dutch had begun importing slaves from West Africa to cultivate sugarcane. In the 18th century the Dutch, joined by other Europeans, moved…

feverwort: …plants are tinker’s weed and wild coffee.

columbine: Major species: The wild columbine, or eastern red columbine, of North America (A. canadensis) grows in woods and on rocky ledges from southern Canada southward. It is 30 to 90 cm (1 to 3 feet) tall. The flowers are red with touches of yellow and are pollinated by…

Leo McCarey: Feature films: …Twentieth Century-Fox) and then made Wild Company (1930), an account of a spoiled youth (played by Frank Albertson) who is framed for murder; the drama is memorable for featuring Bela Lugosi, who portrayed a nightclub owner. McCarey next directed the popular musical Let’s Go Native (1930), which starred Jeanette MacDonald,…

wild cucumber, (species Echinocystis lobata), climbing plant of the gourd family (Cucurbitaceae), native to eastern North America. The true balsam apple is Momordica balsamina. The wild cucumber has leaves with three to seven sharp lobes; forked, coiled tendrils; six-petaled white flowers; and a

African wild dog, (Lycaon pictus), wild African carnivore that differs from the rest of the members of the dog family (Canidae) in having only four toes on each foot. Its coat is short, sparse, and irregularly blotched with yellow, black, and white. The African wild dog is about 76–102 cm (30–41

mallard, (Anas platyrhynchos), abundant “wild duck” of the Northern Hemisphere that is the ancestor of most domestic ducks. Breeding throughout Europe, most of Asia, and northern North America, mallards winter as far south as North Africa, India, and southern Mexico. During the 20th century,

The Wild Duck, drama in five acts by Henrik Ibsen, published in 1884 as Vildanden and produced the following year. In the play, an idealistic outsider’s gratuitous truth-telling destroys a family. Gregers Werle, who has a compulsion to tell the truth at all costs, reveals to the Ekdal family

wildfire, uncontrolled fire in a forest, grassland, brushland, or land sown to crops. The terms forest fire, brush fire, etc., may be used to describe specific types of wildfires; their usage varies according to the characteristics of the fire and the region in which it occurs. Fire danger in a

Sleater-Kinney: …an actress—helped found the band Wild Flag, which debuted with a self-titled album in 2011. In addition, Brownstein was a creator, writer, and actress on the popular television show Portlandia (2011–18).

community ecology: Gene-for-gene coevolution: …best-studied example is that of wild flax (Linum marginale) and flax rust (Melampsora lini) in Australia. Local populations of flax plants and flax rust harbour multiple matching genes for resistance and avirulence. The number of genes and their frequency within local populations fluctuate greatly over time as coevolution continues. In…

wildflower, any flowering plant that has not been genetically manipulated. Generally the term applies to plants growing without intentional human aid, particularly those flowering in spring and summer in woodlands, prairies, and mountains. Wildflowers are the source of all cultivated garden

John Dryden: Writing for the stage: His first play, The Wild Gallant, a farcical comedy with some strokes of humour and a good deal of licentious dialogue, was produced in 1663. It was a comparative failure, but in January 1664 he had some share in the success of The Indian Queen, a heroic tragedy…

William Robinson: …English wildflowers, led to his Wild Garden (1870; reprinted in facsimile, 1978). This and his Alpine Flowers for English Gardens (1870) and The English Flower Garden (1883) were, in effect, an assault on the contemporary formal architectural garden, on the use of exotics, and all obviously artificial gardening practices. The…

Canadian literature: Modern period, 1900–60: Martha Ostenso’s Wild Geese (1925), a tale of a strong young girl in thrall to her cruel father, and Frederick Philip Grove’s Settlers of the Marsh (1925) and Fruits of the Earth (1933), depicting man’s struggle for mastery of himself and his land, are moving testaments to…

Richard Burton: Where Eagles Dare (1968), The Wild Geese (1978), and 1984 (1984), the latter of which was his final feature film. Burton also occasionally appeared on television, notably playing Winston Churchill in the TV movie The Gathering Storm (1974) and Richard Wagner in the miniseries Wagner, which first aired in…

X: …effort and the follow-up albums Wild Gift (1981) and Under the Big Black Sun (1982) drew critical raves, as X broadened punk’s do-it-yourself ethos with excellent musicianship (Zoom, who had once played with rock-and-roll pioneer Gene Vincent, blazed through country, rockabilly, heavy metal, and punk licks with dispassionate

wild ginger, any of about 75 species of the genus Asarum, perennial herbs of the birthwort family (Aristolochiaceae), distributed throughout North Temperate areas of the world. The leaves and underground stems (rhizomes) of some Asarum species give off a pleasant odour when bruised, and dried

Alain Resnais: …comedy Les Herbes folles (Wild Grasses) premiered at Cannes, and the film festival presented Resnais with a Lifetime Achievement Award. His final films, Vous n’avez encore rien vu (2012; You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet) and Aimer, boire et chanter (2014; Life of Riley), were also praised by critics.

Stevie Nicks: Solo career and Fleetwood Mac reunion: That same year her album The Wild Heart, which featured collaborations with Petty and Prince, debuted to widespread success. Her other solo albums included Rock a Little (1985), The Other Side of the Mirror (1989), and Street Angel (1994).

Martin Lawrence: …films are Open Season (2006), Wild Hogs (2007), and College Road Trip (2008). He reunited with Smith for Bad Boys II (2003) and Bad Boys for Life (2020).

Assateague Island National Seashore: …Island is renowned for its wild horses, which actually are feral, formerly domesticated animals. They are the size of ponies; their diminutive size is mainly attributed to a relatively poor diet of mostly beach grass and cordgrass and exposure to often harsh environmental conditions. They live in two herds, one…

Robert Duvall: …movies included the crime drama Wild Horses (2015), which he also directed and cowrote, and the thriller Widows (2018). In 2021 he appeared in 12 Mighty Orphans, a football drama based on a true story from the 1930s.

bluebell: …clusters of English bluebell, or wild hyacinth (Hyacinthoides non-scripta), and Spanish bluebell (H. hispanica) are borne on plants about 30 cm (1 foot) tall. Both species are cultivated as garden ornamentals.

hydrangea: Hills-of-snow, or wild hydrangea (H. arborescens), a shrub slightly more than 1 metre (4 feet) tall, has rounded clusters of white flowers. The French hydrangea, or hortensia (H. macrophylla), is widely cultivated in many varieties for its large globular flower clusters in colours of rose,…

feverwort, any of the four North American plant species of the genus Triosteum, all coarse perennials belonging to the family Caprifoliaceae. Several other species of the genus are East Asian. The common names feverwort, wild ipecac, and horse gentian resulted from former medicinal uses of the

Louise Glück: …won a Pulitzer Prize for The Wild Iris (1992). Her later works included Meadowlands (1996), The First Five Books of Poems (1997), and The Seven Ages (2001). Averno (2006) was her well-received treatment of the Persephone myth. The poems collected in A Village Life (2009)—about existence in a small

Irish literature: Samuel Ferguson, Sydney Owenson, and Maria Edgeworth: …it was her romantic novel The Wild Irish Girl (1806) that made her a household name. This partly epistolary novel, set in Ireland, concerns the romance between Horatio, a young Englishman, and Glorvina, whose father’s Irish estate has been destroyed by Horatio’s father. Owenson was also one of the earliest…

Anthony Quinn: …in the memorable motion pictures Wild Is the Wind (1957), The Savage Innocents (1959), The Guns of Navarone (1961), Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962), and Lawrence of Arabia (1962).

chaste tree, (Vitex agnus-castus), aromatic shrub of the mint family (Lamiaceae; formerly placed in Verbenaceae), native to Eurasia. Its pliable twigs are used in basketry. Its fruits are used for flavouring and in herbal medicine to treat menstrual cycle problems. The plant gets its name from the

Linda McCartney: Career: The band’s first album, Wild Life (1971), received mostly lukewarm reviews from music critics, but Wings soon found their groove with the hit singles “My Love” (1973), “Live and Let Die” (the theme from the James Bond film of the same name, also 1973), and “Band on the Run”…

madder: cordifolia), and the wild madder (R. peregrina) were formerly cultivated for a red dye known as alizarin, which was obtained from the ground-up roots. That dye was used for cloth and could be prepared and applied in such a way as to yield pink and purple shades as…

mallard, (Anas platyrhynchos), abundant “wild duck” of the Northern Hemisphere that is the ancestor of most domestic ducks. Breeding throughout Europe, most of Asia, and northern North America, mallards winter as far south as North Africa, India, and southern Mexico. During the 20th century,

Gao Xingjian: …plays such as Yeren (1985; Wild Man) and, most notably, Bi’an (1986; The Other Shore), which was quickly banned by the authorities. Gao then embarked on a 10-month walking tour following the course of the Yangtze River—a spiritual pilgrimage that became the basis for his first novel, Lingshan (1989; Soul…

wild mango, (genus Irvingia), genus of several species of tropical African trees of the family Irvingiaceae. Dika (Irvingia gabonensis) and other species (such as I. wombolu) are notable for their edible yellow fruit, which somewhat resembles the unrelated mango (Mangifera indica). Dika seeds are

oregano, (Origanum vulgare), aromatic perennial herb of the mint family (Lamiaceae) known for its flavourful dried leaves and flowering tops. Oregano is native to the hills of the Mediterranean countries and western Asia and has naturalized in parts of Mexico and the United States. The herb has

mignonette: Major species: …wild, or yellow, mignonette (R. lutea) and white mignonette (R. alba). Weld (R. luteola) yields a yellow dye that has been used for more than 3,000 years.

mint: Major species: Wild mint (M. arvensis), native in North America and Eurasia, reaches about 1 metre (about 3.3 feet) in height.

Emily Blunt: A Quiet Place and Oppenheimer: …Jon Hamm in the dramedy Wild Mountain Thyme (2020) and with Dwayne Johnson in Jungle Cruise (2021), an action comedy based on a theme park ride. In 2022 Blunt appeared in the TV miniseries The English, a violent western in which she played a British aristocrat seeking revenge in the…

John Mellencamp: …version of Van Morrison’s “Wild Night”; Mr. Happy Go Lucky (1996), featuring the hit single “Key West Intermezzo (I Saw You First)”; the self-titled John Mellencamp (1998); and Trouble No More (2003), an album of stripped-down covers that topped the blues charts. Freedom’s Road (2007) yielded the minor hit…

Joyce Carol Oates: Wild Nights!: Stories About the Last Days of Poe, Dickinson, Twain, James, and Hemingway (2008) featured fictionalized accounts of the final days of various iconic American writers. The stories in Black Dahlia and White Rose (2012) were threaded with menace and violence; the title piece…

wild oat, (genus Avena), genus of tufted annual grasses of the family Poaceae, native to Eurasia and Africa. Wild oats are sometimes cut for hay, and young plants provide forage for grazing animals. All species have edible seeds, and domesticated oats (Avena sativa) are an important cereal crop in

Shirley MacLaine: In Wild Oats (2016) MacLaine was cast as a widow who, after mistakenly receiving a life insurance check for $5 million, goes to the Canary Islands with her best friend (played by Jessica Lange). The film underwent numerous production delays because of financial difficulties, and MacLaine…

loosestrife: Swamp loosestrife, water willow, or wild oleander (Decodon verticillatus) is a perennial herb native to swamps and ponds of eastern North America.

The Wild One, American dramatic film, released in 1953, that was deemed scandalous for its day. Marlon Brando’s portrayal of a brooding biker in a black leather jacket helped launch both the film and an international interest in motorcycle gangs such as the Hell’s Angels. The plot is loosely based

Sidney Franklin: …of a Javanese prince in Wild Orchids (1929).

William Faulkner: Later life and works of William Faulkner: The novel The Wild Palms (1939) was again technically adventurous, with two distinct yet thematically counterpointed narratives alternating, chapter by chapter, throughout. But Faulkner was beginning to return to the Yoknapatawpha County material he had first imagined in the 1920s and subsequently exploited in short-story form. The…

pansy: Major species: The wild pansy (V. tricolor), also known as Johnny-jump-up, heartsease, and love-in-idleness, has been widely naturalized in North America. The flowers of this form are usually purple and yellow and less than 2 cm (0.8 inch) across.

passion flower: Major species: The wild passion flower, passion vine, or maypop (Passiflora incarnata) climbs about 3 to 9 metres (10 to 30 feet) high and has pink and white flowers about 4 to 7.5 cm (1.5 to 3 inches) across and a yellow berrylike edible fruit about 5 cm…