- Unetician B (European culture)
history of Europe: Changing centres of wealth: During Unetician B this complex continued, spreading into Bohemia and much of Germany and Poland. In this process, the original centre was complemented by a number of extremely rich graves on its periphery, such as at Leubingen, Helmsdorf, and Straubing in central Germany and Łęki Małe…
- Unetician Culture (European culture)
history of Europe: The chronology of the Metal Ages: …Late phases or into the Unetician, Tumulus, and Urnfield cultures. Synchronizations of the more detailed local subdivisions, which were based on typology of metal objects and cross-associations, have employed schemes of Paul Reinecke and Oscar Montelius. Oscar Montelius’ chronology was developed on the basis of Scandinavian bronze objects and resulted…
- uneven parallel bars (gymnastics)
uneven parallel bars, gymnastics apparatus developed in the 1930s and used in women’s competition. The length and construction are the same as for the parallel bars used in men’s gymnastics. The top bar is 2.4 meters (7.8 feet) above the floor, while the lower bar is 1.65 meters (5.4 feet) high.
- unevenly-grained rock (geology)
igneous rock: Fabric: Rocks that are unevenly grained, or inequigranular, are generally characterized either by a seriate fabric, in which the variation in grain size is gradual and essentially continuous, or by a porphyritic fabric, involving more than one distinct range of grain sizes. Both of these kinds of texture are…
- UNEXIM (Russian bank)
Mikhail Prokhorov: In 1993 the partners formed United Export Import Bank (UNEXIM), with Prokhorov as chairman and Potanin as president. In 1995 Potanin used his ministerial connections to create an arrangement whereby Russian banks would make loans to the struggling Russian government, which would put up its mining, oil, and telecommunications holdings…
- unexpected hanging paradox (logic)
logic puzzle: The unexpected hanging: …his forehead was smudged? A final example might be the paradox of the unexpected hanging, a remarkable puzzle that first became known by word of mouth in the early 1940s. One form of the paradox is the following: A prisoner has been sentenced on Saturday. The judge…
- Unexpected Man, The (play by Reza)
Yasmina Reza: …hit, L’Homme du hasard (1995; The Unexpected Man), was a two-character play set on a train traveling from Paris to Frankfurt. Following long monologues by a self-absorbed male author and his female seatmate and fan, the play ends with a brief dialogue between the two that centres on people’s need…
- Unexpected medical bills? The No Surprises Act can keep you out of debt
Medical needs may be unexpected, but bills shouldn’t be.Medical bills can be confusing, especially if you sought care for an unexpected condition or injury. You could find yourself wary of opening bills and explanations of benefits (EOBs) that roll in afterward, especially if you’re discovering the
- unexplained aerial phenomenon
unidentified flying object (UFO), any aerial object or optical phenomenon not readily identifiable to the observer. UFOs became a major subject of interest following the development of rocketry after World War II and were thought by some researchers to be intelligent extraterrestrial life visiting
- unexploded ordnance (weapon)
Convention on Cluster Munitions: Unexploded ordnance (UXO) generated by cluster munitions, used extensively by NATO forces in the Kosovo conflict, resulted in more than 150 post-combat casualties. Reports by Human Rights Watch and the International Committee of the Red Cross found that an estimated 10 percent of the 289,000…
- unfair competition (law)
advertising fraud: Lanham Act and state laws: …one of two legal theories: unfair competition or commercial disparagement.
- Unfaithful (film by Lyne [2002])
Richard Gere: …2008 he reteamed with his Unfaithful (2002) costar Diane Lane in Nights in Rodanthe, a romantic drama based on a novel by Nicholas Sparks. Gere’s later films include Amelia (2009), a biopic about the American aviator Amelia Earhart (played by Hilary Swank), and the crime drama
- Unfaithful, The (film by Sherman [1947])
Vincent Sherman: Women’s pictures: Sheridan was also notable in The Unfaithful (1947), playing a woman who kills an intruder, allegedly in self-defense; it was loosely based on W. Somerset Maugham’s novel The Letter.
- Unfaithfully Yours (film by Sturges [1948])
Preston Sturges: Films of the mid-1940s to mid-1950s: At Twentieth Century-Fox Sturges made Unfaithfully Yours (1948), a dark comedy that defied Hollywood conventions for the genre and failed commerically as a consequence. Rex Harrison starred as a symphony conductor who suspects his wife (Linda Darnell) of cheating on him, and as he is conducting, he imagines three scenarios…
- UNFCCC (international treaty)
Antarctica: Post-IGY research: …Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Representatives of member nations attend business meetings and biennial open science conferences to bring scientists together across disciplines. Disciplinary groups and subgroups under SCAR also meet regularly for international symposia, with a timetable dependent upon progress…
- UNFICYP (United Nations military force)
Cyprus: Security: …peacekeeping troops in Cyprus (UNFICYP) who police the demilitarized zone that divides the country; the United Kingdom also maintains two sovereign military bases in Cyprus.
- Unfiltered (American radio program)
Rachel Maddow: …and soon became cohost of Unfiltered with Lizz Winstead and Chuck D. After that show’s cancellation in 2005, she was given her own, self-titled weekday show, which aired originally for one hour and later for two. She quickly built her reputation as an issue-oriented, fair-minded, left-leaning “policy wonk.” While continuing…
- Unfinished Dance, The (film by Koster [1947])
Henry Koster: Films of the 1940s: …Grayson, and Jimmy Durante, and The Unfinished Dance (1947), starring O’Brien as a dance student who idolizes a ballerina (Cyd Charisse); the latter marked the last time Koster worked with Pasternak. Leaving behind the light musicals that had thus far defined his career, Koster then made The Bishop’s Wife (1947).…
- Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins (album by Lennon and Ono)
Yoko Ono: …cover of their musique-concrète-based album Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins (1968) controversially featured a photograph of them naked—and they wed the following year.
- Unfinished Symphony (work by Schubert)
Franz Schubert: Maturity of Franz Schubert: …time, destined to obscurity: the Symphony in B Minor (Unfinished), which speaks from Schubert’s heart. Two movements and a half-finished scherzo were completed in October and November 1822. In November of the same year Schubert composed a piano fantasia in which the variations are on a theme from his song…
- unfolded protein response (cellular mechanism)
endoplasmic reticulum: …signaling mechanism known as the unfolded protein response (UPR) is activated. The response is adaptive, such that UPR activation triggers reductions in protein synthesis and enhancements in ER protein-folding capacity and ER-associated protein degradation. If the adaptive response fails, cells are directed to undergo apoptosis (programmed cell death).
- Unfolding, The (novel by Homes)
A.M. Homes: …first novel in 10 years, The Unfolding. A political satire, it centres on a Republican who is upset that Democrat Barack Obama was elected president of the United States.
- Unforgettable (film by Di Novi [2017])
Katherine Heigl: In the thriller Unforgettable (2017) Heigl played a woman who terrorizes her ex-husband’s fiancée. In addition to her starring turns, she had roles in the ensemble romantic comedies New Year’s Eve (2011) and The Big Wedding (2013). She voiced a squirrel in the computer-animated comedy The Nut Job…
- Unforgettable Fire, The (album by U2)
Bono: …had even greater success with The Unforgettable Fire in 1984. The next year, the band was approached by Jack Healy, head of Amnesty International USA, and was asked to join the “Conspiracy of Hope” tour to bring attention to human rights violations and encourage fans to fight them. Afterward Bono…
- Unforgettable with Love (album by Cole)
Natalie Cole: …1991 with the release of Unforgettable with Love, a double album that featured her father’s classics, including “Smile,” “The Very Thought of You,” and “Mona Lisa.” A commercial and critical success, it was Cole’s first album to reach number one and earned three Grammy Awards. The title track was digitally…
- Unforgivable, The (film by Fingscheidt [2021])
Sandra Bullock: In her next film, The Unforgivable (2021), Bullock portrayed a convicted murderer who searches for redemption and her younger sister after being released from prison. She returned to comedy with The Lost City (2022), about a romance writer who is kidnapped.
- Unforgiven (film by Eastwood [1992])
Unforgiven, American revisionist western film, released in 1992, that was directed by and starred Clint Eastwood. It won four Academy Awards as well as both critical and popular praise for its uncompromising approach to the mythology and pathology of the genre in a brutal story that laid bare the
- Unforgiven, The (film by Huston [1960])
John Huston: Films of the 1960s of John Huston: …return to form for Huston, The Unforgiven (1960) starred Audrey Hepburn in the only western role of her career, as a Native American who has been raised by a Texas settler family. The troubled history of the making of Huston’s next film, The Misfits (1961), became a staple of Hollywood…
- Unfortunate Traveller; or, The Life of Jacke Wilton, The (work by Nashe)
Thomas Nashe: The Unfortunate Traveller is a brutal and realistic tale of adventure narrated with speed and economy. The book describes the travels through Germany and Italy of its rogue hero, Jacke Wilton, who lives by his wits and witnesses all sorts of historic events before he…
- Unfortunate Woman: A Journey, An (novel by Brautigan)
Richard Brautigan: His final novel, An Unfortunate Woman: A Journey, was posthumously published first in French as Cahier d’un retour de troie (1994) and then in English (2000). Several of Brautigan’s early writings, which he gave to his friend Edna Webster before leaving Oregon for San Francisco and which were…
- UNFP (political party, Morocco)
Mehdi Ben Barka: …party to found the left-wing National Union of Popular Forces (UNFP). He was widely considered as a likely president for a possible Republic of Morocco. When Morocco and Algeria had a brief war in 1963, Ben Barka sided with Algeria and went into exile. He was subsequently accused of high…
- UNFPA (international fund)
United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), trust fund under the jurisdiction of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Established in 1969, the UNFPA is the largest international source of assistance for population programs and the leading United Nations (UN) organization for the
- unfree tenure (medieval law)
feudal land tenure: …were divided into free and unfree. Of the free tenures, the first was tenure in chivalry, principally grand sergeanty and knight service. The former obliged the tenant to perform some honourable and often personal service; knight service entailed performing military duties for the king or other lord, though by the…
- Unfriended (film by Gabriadze [2014])
found footage: …films are the horror movie Unfriended (2014) and the mystery Searching (2018).
- Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story (film by Seinfeld [2024[)
Jerry Seinfeld: Later activities: …directed his first feature film, Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story. The comedy, which he also cowrote and starred in, was inspired by the rivalry between cereal companies General Foods and Kellogg’s to create a breakfast cake.
- unfused tetanus (physiology)
muscle: Twitch and tetanus responses: …with the stimulation, causing an unfused tetanus. It is possible to stimulate the muscle at a frequency between these extremes so that the tension developed by the muscle remains constant. This latter type of contraction is called a fused tetanus, and the rate of stimulation that produces it is called…
- Ung Lich (emperor of Annam)
Ham Nghi was the emperor of Annam (now Vietnam) in 1884–86 who rejected the role of a figurehead in the French colonial regime. Ung Lich was a nephew of the emperor Tu Duc, whose death in 1883 led to a disputed succession. After several equally legitimate heirs had been assassinated or deposed, Ung
- Ung må verden ennu være (work by Grieg)
Nordahl Grieg: …some consider his best novel, Ung må verden ennu være (“The World Must Still Be Young”), which exhibits his political passion and wholehearted identification with the Russians. The novel, set in England, Russia, Spain, and Norway, affirms Grieg’s particular espousal of a romanticism conjoined with a well-developed sense of reality.…
- Ungar, Stu (American poker player)
poker: The World Series of Poker: …Thomas (“Amarillo Slim”) Preston, and Stu Ungar.
- Ungaretti, Giuseppe (Italian poet)
Giuseppe Ungaretti was an Italian poet, founder of the Hermetic movement (see Hermeticism) that brought about a reorientation in modern Italian poetry. Born in Egypt of parents who were Italian settlers, Ungaretti lived in Alexandria until he was 24; the desert regions of Egypt were to provide
- Ungava (peninsula, Quebec, Canada)
Ungava, peninsular section of northern Quebec province, Canada, bounded by the Hudson Strait (north), Ungava Bay and Labrador (east), the Eastmain River (south), and the Hudson Bay (west). Physically, Ungava is a part of the Canadian Shield, a rocky, glacial-scoured plateau characterized by
- Ungava Bay (bay, Quebec, Canada)
Ungava Bay, inlet off the Hudson Strait, on the northeast coast of Nord-du-Québec region, northern Quebec province, Canada. The bay is approximately 200 miles (320 km) long, 160 miles (260 km) wide at the mouth, and has a maximum depth of 978 feet (298 m). It is fed by several large rivers, notably
- Ungava Lake (lake, Quebec, Canada)
lake: Basins formed by wind action, animal activity, and meteorites: …known in craters, however, including Ungava Lake in Quebec. In many other cases it has not been possible to definitely confirm that basins that have the appearance of meteorite craters have indeed been produced by meteorite impact. Controversial ones include the bay lakes of southeast North America.
- Ungava-Quebec Crater (crater, Quebec, Canada)
Ungava-Quebec Crater, geologically young crater, produced by an impact event involving a meteorite, located in the northwestern part of the Ungava Peninsula, northern Quebec province, Canada. First recognized as an impact structure in 1950, the crater is 3.4 km (2.1 miles) in diameter and has a rim
- Unge, Wilhelm (Swedish inventor)
rocket and missile system: The 19th century: …the turn of the century, Wilhelm Unge invented a device described as an “aerial torpedo.” Based upon the stickless Hale rocket, it incorporated a number of design improvements. One of these was a rocket motor nozzle that caused the gas flow to converge and then diverge. Another was the use…
- Ungeduld des Herzens (novel by Zweig)
Stefan Zweig: …novel, Ungeduld des Herzens (1938; Beware of Pity), and translated works of Charles Baudelaire, Paul Verlaine, and Émile Verhaeren.
- Unger, Eva (British author, critic, and translator)
Eva Figes was an English novelist, social critic, and translator who reacted against traditional realist literature by inventing new forms for her own works. Figes received a B.A. with honours from Queen Mary College in London in 1953 and subsequently worked for various publishing companies until
- Unger, Johann Friedrich (German publisher)
history of publishing: Germany: …in Tübingen and Stuttgart; and Johann Friedrich Unger in Berlin, all of whom had a share in publishing Schiller and Goethe. Unger also published the magnificent translation of Shakespeare by August von Schlegel (8 vol., 1797–1810).
- Ungerleider, Leslie G. (American scientist)
photoreception: Central processing of visual information: …the 1980s American cognitive scientists Leslie G. Ungerleider and Mortimer Mishkin formulated the idea that there are two processing streams emanating from V1—a dorsal stream leading to the visual cortex of the parietal lobe and a ventral stream leading to the visual regions of the temporal lobe. The dorsal stream…
- Ungern-Sternberg, Baron Roman von (Russian military leader)
Mongolia: Independence and revolution: …units under the command of Baron Roman von Ungern-Sternberg (known as the “Mad Baron”) entered Mongolia from eastern Siberia, advanced on Niislel Khüree, drove out the Chinese occupation forces, and in February 1921 restored the Bogd Khan to the throne under the baron’s control.
- Ungewitter, Richard (German author)
nudism: …and was soon followed by Richard Ungewitter’s seminal work Die Nacktheit (1906; Nakedness), which went through several printings. Nudism spread through Europe after World War I and became established in North America during the 1930s. The American League of Physical Culture was founded in 1929 to promote nudism. In the…
- Unggi (North Korea)
Unggi, city, extreme northeastern North Korea. It lies 16 miles (26 km) southwest of the estuary of the Tumen River, which forms North Korea’s boundary with Russia. Until Unggi’s port was opened in 1921, it was a poor village, but it developed rapidly during the Japanese occupation (1910–45) as a
- unglazed porcelain (pottery)
porcelain: …fired without a glaze, called biscuit porcelain, was introduced in Europe in the 18th century. It was generally used for figures. In the 19th century biscuit porcelain was called Parian ware. Some soft-paste porcelains, which remain somewhat porous, require a glaze. After the body has been fired, the glaze, usually…
- Ungnad, Count Jan (Slavic noble)
biblical literature: Slavic versions: …Protestantism among the southern Slavs, Count Jan Ungnad set up a press in 1560 at Urach that issued a translation of the New Testament in both Glagolitic (1562–63) and Cyrillic (1563) characters. The efforts of the Serbian leader Vuk Karadžić to establish the Serbo-Croatian vernacular on a literary basis resulted…
- Unguarded Hour, The (film by Wood [1936])
Sam Wood: Films with the Marx Brothers: The Unguarded Hour (1936) was a complicated but stagy mystery starring Franchot Tone and Loretta Young.
- Unguarded Hours (novel by Wilson)
A.N. Wilson: Wilson’s next two novels, Unguarded Hours (1978) and Kindly Light (1979), chronicle the misadventures of a man who begins a career in organized religion.
- unguis (zoology)
hoof: …upper portion is called the unguis; it completely surrounds the end of the toe, extending down and forming a rim around the bottom of the hoof. A somewhat softer plate, called the subunguis, covers the bottom of the toe and is extensively developed in hoofed animals to form a tough…
- Unguja (Tanzania)
Zanzibar, city and port of the island of Zanzibar, Tanzania. The island’s principal port and commercial centre, it is on the western side of the island behind a well-protected natural deepwater harbour. In 1824 Sultan Saʿīd ibn Sulṭān of Oman established his capital there, shifting it from Muscat
- Unguja (island, Tanzania)
Zanzibar, island in the Indian Ocean, lying 22 miles (35 km) off the coast of east-central Africa. In 1964 Zanzibar, together with Pemba Island and some other smaller islands, joined with Tanganyika on the mainland to form the United Republic of Tanzania. Area 600 square miles (1,554 square km).
- Ungulata (mammal)
ungulate, any hoofed mammal. Although the term may be used to refer to any member of the grandorder Ungulata, which is recognized as a formal level of classification in some taxonomies, in common usage it was widely applied to a diverse group of placental mammals that were characterized as hoofed
- ungulate (mammal)
ungulate, any hoofed mammal. Although the term may be used to refer to any member of the grandorder Ungulata, which is recognized as a formal level of classification in some taxonomies, in common usage it was widely applied to a diverse group of placental mammals that were characterized as hoofed
- unguligrade posture (locomotion)
foot: …dog and cat), and (3) unguligrade, in which only a hoof (the tip of one or two digits) touches the ground—a specialization of running animals (e.g., horse and deer).
- Ungureanu, Mihai Răzvan (prime minister of Romania)
Romania: New constitution: …day Băsescu nominated intelligence chief Mihai Răzvan Ungureanu to succeed Boc, and Ungureanu began talks with coalition leaders about the composition of his cabinet and the formation of a new government.
- Ungvár (Ukraine)
Uzhhorod, city, western Ukraine. It is situated along the Uzh River just east of the Slovak border. For centuries Uzhhorod has been an important cultural, educational, religious, and economic center of the Carpathian Mountains region. It was founded in the 8th or 9th century and has long had
- Unh (chemical element)
seaborgium (Sg), an artificially produced radioactive element in Group VIb of the periodic table, atomic number 106. In June 1974, Georgy N. Flerov of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research at Dubna, Russia, U.S.S.R., announced that his team of investigators had synthesized and identified element
- UNHCR (international organization)
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, organization established as the successor to the International Refugee Organization (IRO; 1946–52) by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in 1951 to provide legal and political protection for refugees until they could acquire
- Unhinged (film by Borte [2020])
Russell Crowe: …later appeared in the thriller Unhinged (2020), playing a man who terrorizes a woman after a traffic incident. In Taika Waititi’s irreverent superhero film Thor: Love and Thunder (2022), Crowe portrayed the god Zeus.
- unhistorical romance (literary genre)
Joan Aiken: …a genre called the “unhistorical romance,” Aiken wrote tales that combine humour and action with traditional mythic and fairy tale elements. Many of these works are set in an invented historical era during the imagined reign of James III of England, who was known as the Old Pretender.
- Unholy Three, The (film by Browning [1925])
Tod Browning: The MGM and Universal years: …(for the time) circus tale The Unholy Three (1925), with Chaney as a transvestite ventriloquist who teams with a dwarf (Harry Earles), a strongman (Victor McLaglen), and a pickpocket (Mae Busch) to go on a crime spree that culminates in murder. In The Road to Mandalay (1926) a shady sea…
- Unholy Wife, The (film by Farrow [1957])
John Farrow: Films of the 1950s: The Unholy Wife (1957) was a rather uninspired noir in which blonde bombshell Diana Dors was cast as a bored wife who tries to kill her husband (Rod Steiger) in order to be with a rodeo rider (Tom Tryon). John Paul Jones (1959), with Robert…
- Unhook the Stars (film by Cassavetes [1996])
Marisa Tomei: Her other movies included Unhook the Stars (1996; with Gena Rowlands) and the comedy Slums of Beverly Hills (1998). She appeared on Broadway in 1998 in Wait Until Dark. Tomei received an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress for the drama In the Bedroom (2001) but followed that with…
- Uni (ancient Egyptian official)
Merenre: …elevated his father’s trusted minister, Uni, to the post of governor of Upper Egypt, an unprecedented honour that placed all Upper Egypt under a single official. The king also expanded the authority of the son of his father’s vizier over two nomes (administrative districts). These appointments undid a program of…
- Uni (Roman goddess)
Juno, in Roman religion, chief goddess and female counterpart of Jupiter, closely resembling the Greek Hera, with whom she was identified. With Jupiter and Minerva, she was a member of the Capitoline triad of deities traditionally introduced by the Etruscan kings. Juno was connected with all
- uni-univalent electrolyte (chemistry)
liquid: Solutions of electrolytes: 001 molal solution of a uni-univalent electrolyte (one in which each ion has a valence, or charge, of 1, and, when dissociated, two ions are produced) such as sodium chloride, Na+Cl-, exhibits colligative properties corresponding to a nonelectrolyte solution whose molality is 0.002; the colligative properties of a 0.001 molal…
- UNIA
Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), primarily in the United States, organization founded by Marcus Garvey, dedicated to racial pride, economic self-sufficiency, and the formation of an independent Black nation in Africa. Though Garvey had founded the UNIA in Jamaica in 1914, its main
- União das Nações Sul-Americanas (South American organization)
UNASUR, South American organization created in 2008 to propel regional integration on issues including democracy, education, energy, environment, infrastructure, and security and to eliminate social inequality and exclusion. It was inspired by and modeled after the European Union. UNASUR’s members
- União dos Palmares (Brazil)
União dos Palmares, city, northeastern Alagoas estado (state), northeastern Brazil. It lies 37 miles (60 km) inland from Maceió, the state capital, on the Atlantic coast. Founded in the 16th century and called União, it was the scene of a quickly suppressed African slave revolt in 1650. Primarily
- União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola (political organization, Angola)
UNITA, Angolan political party that was originally founded to free the nation from Portuguese colonial rule. UNITA was organized in 1966 by elements formerly associated with the National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA) and the Popular Union of Angola, the latter led by Jonas Savimbi, who
- Uniate church (Roman Catholic church)
Eastern rite church, any of a group of Eastern Christian churches that trace their origins to various ancient national or ethnic Christian bodies in the East but have established union (hence, Eastern rite churches were in the past often called Uniates) or canonical communion with the Roman
- uniaxial crystal (physics)
hexagonal system: …system are classed as optically uniaxial, meaning that light travels through the crystal at different speeds in different directions.
- unibody (mechanics)
automobile: Chassis: …this arrangement, called unit-body (or unibody) construction, the steel body shell is reinforced with braces that make it rigid enough to resist the forces that are applied to it. Separate frames or partial “stub” frames have been used for some cars to achieve better noise-isolation characteristics. The heavier-gauge steel present…
- unicameral legislature
constitutional law: Unicameral and bicameral legislatures: A central feature of any constitution is the organization of the legislature. It may be a unicameral body with one chamber or a bicameral body with two chambers. Unicameral legislatures are typical in small countries with unitary systems of government (e.g.,…
- Unicapsula muscularis (organism)
myxosporidian: Representatives are Unicapsula muscularis, the cause of wormy disease in halibut; Myxobolus pfeifferi, the cause of boil disease in barbels; and Myxosoma cerebralis, the cause of twist disease in salmonid fishes.
- UNICEF (international organization)
UNICEF, special program of the United Nations (UN) devoted to aiding national efforts to improve the health, nutrition, education, and general welfare of children. UNICEF was created in 1946 to provide relief to children in countries devastated by World War II. After 1950 the fund directed its
- unicellular organism (eukaryote)
protist, any member of a group of diverse eukaryotic, predominantly unicellular microscopic organisms. They may share certain morphological and physiological characteristics with animals or plants or both. The term protist typically is used in reference to a eukaryote that is not a true animal,
- unicity distance (cryptography)
Vigenère cipher: …this point is called the unicity distance—and is only about 25 symbols, on average, for simple substitution ciphers. See also Vernam-Vigenère cipher.
- Unicode (character-encoding system)
Unicode, international character-encoding system designed to support the electronic interchange, processing, and display of the written texts of the diverse languages of the modern and classical world. The Unicode Standard includes letters, digits, diacritics, punctuation marks, and technical
- Unicode Consortium (American organization)
emoji: …emojis are standardized by the Unicode Consortium, the nonprofit organization responsible for reviewing and releasing proposed emojis and other characters. Brands such as Apple, Google, and Samsung use emojis standardized by the consortium, which allows users to view emojis sent from one device to another no matter the brand or…
- unicorn (mythological creature)
unicorn, mythological animal resembling a horse or a goat with a single horn on its forehead. The unicorn appeared in early Mesopotamian artworks, and it also was referred to in the ancient myths of India and China. The earliest description in Greek literature of a single-horned (Greek monokerōs,
- unicorn company (business start-up)
Stewart Butterfield: …Technologies ranked among the so-called unicorns, privately held start-up companies with a valuation greater than $1 billion. Four years later Butterfield oversaw its becoming a public company. In an unusual move, however, no new stocks were offered, and only existing shares were made available. After the first day of trading,…
- unicorn fish (fish, Eumecichthys species)
unicorn fish: The elongate Eumecichthys fiski, in the crestfish family Lophotidae (order Lampridiformes), is also called unicorn fish.
- unicorn fish (fish, genus Naso)
unicorn fish, any of certain exclusively marine fishes belonging to the genus Naso, in the family Acanthuridae (order Perciformes), occurring in the tropical Indo-Pacific region. The 17 species are herbivorous algae eaters. Unicorn fishes have a pair of sharp forward-pointing spines that protrude
- unicorn plant (botany)
unicorn plant, any North American herb of the family Martyniaceae of the flowering plant order Lamiales, and particularly Proboseidea louisianica. There are nine species of unicorn plants, most having large purple or creamy white flowers. The unicorn plant is often grown for its novel fruits, which
- unicorn team (driving and coaching)
driving and coaching: …leader, are known as a unicorn team. In Russia and Hungary three horses are driven abreast, the centre horse trotting and the outside horses galloping; such a team is known as a troika.
- unicornfish (fish, genus Naso)
unicorn fish, any of certain exclusively marine fishes belonging to the genus Naso, in the family Acanthuridae (order Perciformes), occurring in the tropical Indo-Pacific region. The 17 species are herbivorous algae eaters. Unicorn fishes have a pair of sharp forward-pointing spines that protrude
- Unicorns—They Exist!
One of the results of the recent Census of Marine Life (2000–10) was the discovery of some 1,200 new species and some 5,000 others awaiting description, confirming, once again, that the Age of Discovery is far from over. It was certainly very far from over when the following entry on “Mammalia”
- Unidad Popular (Chilean political coalition)
Salvador Allende: …ran as the candidate of Popular Unity, a bloc of Socialists, Communists, Radicals, and some dissident Christian Democrats, leading in a three-sided race with 36.3 percent of the vote. Because he lacked a popular majority, however, his election had to be confirmed by Congress, in which there was strong opposition…
- Unidad Revolucionario Nacional Guatemalteco (resistance movement, Guatemala)
Guatemala: Civil war years: …in the formation of the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (Unidad Revolucionario Nacional Guatemalteco; URNG). A series of attempted military coups were put down by the defense minister, Gen. Héctor Alejandro Gramajo. Labour and peasant unrest also increased during the Cerezo presidency. Some painful economic progress was made, but the insurgency…
- unidentified aerial phenomenon
unidentified flying object (UFO), any aerial object or optical phenomenon not readily identifiable to the observer. UFOs became a major subject of interest following the development of rocketry after World War II and were thought by some researchers to be intelligent extraterrestrial life visiting
- unidentified flying object
unidentified flying object (UFO), any aerial object or optical phenomenon not readily identifiable to the observer. UFOs became a major subject of interest following the development of rocketry after World War II and were thought by some researchers to be intelligent extraterrestrial life visiting