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493b65354b95e59bb250d4732f3395f8
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Samanid-dynasty
Samanid dynasty
Samanid dynasty Samanid dynasty, (819–999 ce), Iranian dynasty that arose in what is now eastern Iran and Uzbekistan. It was renowned for the impulse that it gave to Iranian national sentiment and learning. The four grandsons of the dynasty’s founder, Sāmān-Khodā, had been rewarded with provinces for their faithful se...
7a799fadebcbb5028c9d648353efbd09
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Samaritan
Samaritan
Samaritan Samaritan, member of a community of Jews, now nearly extinct, that claims to be related by blood to those Jews of ancient Samaria who were not deported by the Assyrian conquerors of the kingdom of Israel in 722 bce. The Samaritans call themselves Bene-Yisrael (“Children of Israel”), or Shamerim (“Observant O...
5c782d294a96c2dcf3fc98522b03197e
https://www.britannica.com/topic/samba-school
Samba school
Samba school …competitions of Carnival in so-called samba schools (escolas de samba), which function as community clubs and neighbourhood centres. Both children’s and adults’ groups make up the several thousand dancers and musicians of each samba school, and many more people are involved in constructing floats and maki...
6ffd2b05203bbede8ae946dd8dbede7b
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Sambation
Sambation
Sambation Sambation, also spelled Sanbation, or Sambatyon, legendary “Sabbath River” beyond which the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel were exiled in 721 bc by Shalmaneser V, king of Assyria. Legends describe it as a roaring torrent (often not of water but of stones), the turbulence of which ceases only on the Sabbath, when ...
3513faf7ab4209e7a5f285208e185fe3
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Same-Time-Next-Year
Same Time, Next Year
Same Time, Next Year More popular was Same Time, Next Year (1978), which retained the wistful charm of the Bernard Slade play. Alan Alda and Ellen Burstyn starred as two lovers who meet once a year for almost three decades. Kiss Me Goodbye (1982), however, was a dull romance about a widow… …appeared in numerous films, ...
8e43804c3c01c734c11e217ddf3c4b34
https://www.britannica.com/topic/samma-kammanto
Samma kammanto
Samma kammanto …speech, and senseless speech, (4) correct action, refraining from physical misdeeds such as killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct, (5) correct livelihood, avoiding trades that directly or indirectly harm others, such as selling slaves, weapons, animals for slaughter, intoxicants, or poisons, (6) corr...
e5eecb299f829171b0cf43e47d5a53d2
https://www.britannica.com/topic/samma-sankappo
Samma sankappo
Samma sankappo …the Four Noble Truths, (2) correct intention, avoiding thoughts of attachment, hatred, and harmful intent, (3) correct speech, refraining from verbal misdeeds such as lying, divisive speech, harsh speech, and senseless speech, (4) correct action, refraining from physical misdeeds such as killing, steali...
4168dd753941cbec9073d6da0909a6af
https://www.britannica.com/topic/samma-vayamo
Samma vayamo
Samma vayamo …slaughter, intoxicants, or poisons, (6) correct effort, abandoning negative states of mind that have already arisen, preventing negative states that have yet to arise, and sustaining positive states that have already arisen, (7) correct mindfulness, awareness of body, feelings, thought, and phenomena (the...
869208c9970581d474e10f83a43f21b9
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Samuel-Parris
Samuel Parris
Samuel Parris …the influence of the Putnams, Samuel Parris, a merchant from Boston by way of Barbados, became the pastor of the village’s Congregational church. Parris, whose largely theological studies at Harvard College (now Harvard University) had been interrupted before he could graduate, was in the process of chan...
caedb06a8ce964d82456b03994d73789
https://www.britannica.com/topic/samvrti-satya
Saṃvṛti-satya
Saṃvṛti-satya Saṃvṛti-satya, (Sanskrit: “the empirical truth”), in Buddhist thought, the truth based on the common understanding of ordinary people. It refers to the empirical reality usually accepted in everyday life and can be admitted for practical purposes of communication. It is distinct from the ultimate truth ...
f580a7ff8a131805fa1c961ba7342f0c
https://www.britannica.com/topic/San-Francesco
San Francesco
San Francesco San Francesco, Franciscan monastery and church in Assisi, Italy, begun after the canonization in 1228 of St. Francis of Assisi and completed in 1253. The crypt was added in 1818, when the tomb of St. Francis was opened. The lower church is where the saint is buried, and it has frescoes by Giunta Pisano, ...
48cb6867eb52e4e6961dd9a50a56d054
https://www.britannica.com/topic/San-Francisco-49ers
San Francisco 49ers
San Francisco 49ers San Francisco 49ers, American professional gridiron football team based in Santa Clara, California, that plays in the National Football League (NFL). The 49ers have won five Super Bowl titles (1982, 1985, 1989, 1990, and 1995) and seven National Football Conference (NFC) championships. The San Fr...
48950af513a6494bbd545465a6cf2fdf
https://www.britannica.com/topic/San-Francisco-Giants
San Francisco Giants
San Francisco Giants San Francisco Giants, American professional baseball team based in San Francisco. The Giants have won eight World Series titles and 23 National League (NL) pennants. The franchise that would become the Giants was established in 1883 in New York City and was initially known as the Gothams. In 1885 ...
2c035a8fa59592082b7a6fee1b7efd92
https://www.britannica.com/topic/San-Quentin-State-Prison
San Quentin State Prison
San Quentin State Prison San Quentin State Prison, maximum-security correctional facility for men located in San Quentin, near San Francisco, California. Opened in 1854, the penitentiary is the state’s oldest prison and its only facility that conducts executions. San Quentin is also among the most well-known prisons i...
0a2f8b85a36f76e84fe4672b9b58fa79
https://www.britannica.com/topic/sanatana-dharma
Sanatana dharma
Sanatana dharma Sanatana dharma, in Hinduism, term used to denote the “eternal” or absolute set of duties or religiously ordained practices incumbent upon all Hindus, regardless of class, caste, or sect. Different texts give different lists of the duties, but in general sanatana dharma consists of virtues such as hon...
db32955c8c4b89c7a730a4d49fe9bee6
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Sancho-Panza
Sancho Panza
Sancho Panza Sancho Panza, Don Quixote’s squire in the novel Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes, a short, pot-bellied peasant whose gross appetite, common sense, and vulgar wit serve as a foil to the mad idealism of his master. He is famous for his many pertinent proverbs. Cervantes used the psychological differences ...
0f7888f133aa6de6575c0e92ce9a816a
https://www.britannica.com/topic/sanctuary-religion
Sanctuary
Sanctuary Sanctuary, in religion, a sacred place, set apart from the profane, ordinary world. Originally, sanctuaries were natural locations, such as groves or hills, where the divine or sacred was believed to be especially present. The concept was later extended to include man-made structures; e.g., the tabernacle (...
170ebdb450a3b15e34f769dabbcb74b9
https://www.britannica.com/topic/SandP-500
S&P 500
S&P 500 S&P 500, abbreviation of Standard and Poor’s 500, in the United States, a stock market index that tracks 500 publicly traded domestic companies. It is considered by many investors to be the best overall measurement of American stock market performance. Standard & Poor’s, which sponsors a number of other market...
5a85a3db144043544902f3901ef8ff0f
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Sang-Sinsai
Sang Sinsai
Sang Sinsai …such major classical works as Sang Sinsai and Thao Hung Thao Cheuang were probably composed. The titles of these works are drawn from the names of their subjects: the former relates the exploits of a legendary prince, and the latter is the tale of a Southeast Asian warrior-king. Following the…
83eb48dcc5e8573f1d5791cb7b8a05d7
https://www.britannica.com/topic/sanna
Saññā
Saññā …perceptions of sense objects (Sanskrit: saṃjñā; Pāli: saññā); (4) mental formations (saṃskāras/sankhāras); and (5) awareness, or consciousness, of the other three mental aggregates (vijñāna/viññāṇa). All individuals are subject to constant change, as the elements of consciousness are never the same, and man may ...
e8c53ce317fe05be73aa3a74a3f2e6c2
https://www.britannica.com/topic/sannyasi
Sannyasi
Sannyasi Sannyasi, (Sanskrit: “abandoning” or “throwing down”) also spelled sannyasin, in Hinduism, a religious ascetic who has renounced the world by performing his own funeral and abandoning all claims to social or family standing. Sannyasis, like other sadhus, or holy men, are not cremated but are generally buried ...
35b6fdc6a016713b920654be2695a4ae
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Santa-Claus
Santa Claus
Santa Claus Santa Claus, legendary figure who is the traditional patron of Christmas in the United States and other countries, bringing gifts to children. His popular image is based on traditions associated with Saint Nicholas, a 4th-century Christian saint. Father Christmas fills the role in many European countries. ...
d4adcb0a2b53df202bbadd66ee6d7a05
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Santa-Fe-Trail
Santa Fe Trail
Santa Fe Trail Santa Fe Trail, in U.S. history, famed wagon trail from Independence, Mo., to Santa Fe, N.M., an important commercial route (1821–80). Opened by William Becknell, a trader, the trail was used by merchant wagon caravans travelling in parallel columns, which, when Indians attacked, as they did frequently ...
9fa125a7c581737cde7837958f913e0c
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Santa-Maria-dei-Frari
Santa Maria dei Frari
Santa Maria dei Frari Santa Maria dei Frari, English St. Mary of the Friars, Franciscan church in Venice, originally built in the mid-13th century but rebuilt in Gothic style in the 15th century. This important example of Venetian Gothic ecclesiastical architecture (often referred to simply as the Frari) contains many...
8c3e4ad07fdb817e2ba9bc96ba66dd01
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Santiago-School-of-Architecture
Santiago School of Architecture
Santiago School of Architecture In Chile the Santiago School of Architecture was founded in 1849 by the Frenchman François Brunet de Baines. In both the school’s pedagogy and its architecture, Brunet introduced to Santiago the influence of the French Beaux-Arts eclectic historicism. He then began to work for the govern...
75ef3706901fd44d165179baad0d2d2b
https://www.britannica.com/topic/sarcophagus
Sarcophagus
Sarcophagus Sarcophagus, stone coffin. The original term is of doubtful meaning. Pliny explains that the word denotes a coffin of limestone from the Troad (the region around Troy) which had the property of dissolving the body quickly (Greek sarx, “flesh,” and phagein, “to eat”), but this explanation is questionable; r...
623adcacfc93cdf9927692cecccba206
https://www.britannica.com/topic/sashimi
Sashimi
Sashimi Sashimi, specialty of Japanese cuisine, fresh fish served raw. The fish, which must be utterly fresh, is sliced paper thin or alternately one-quarter to one-half inch (0.75–1.5 cm) thick, cubed, or cut in strips, according to the nature of the fish. The sashimi is accompanied by wasabi (green paste made of tr...
2c8da6182f78e309489778b1d31116a0
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Sasquatch
Sasquatch
Sasquatch Sasquatch, also called Bigfoot, (from Salish se’sxac: “wild men”) a large, hairy, humanlike creature believed by some people to exist in the northwestern United States and western Canada. It seems to represent the North American counterpart of the Himalayan region’s mythical monster, the Abominable Snowman, ...
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https://www.britannica.com/topic/Satanism
Satanism
Satanism Satanism, any of various religious or countercultural practices and movements centred on the figure of Satan, the Devil, regarded in Christianity and Judaism as the embodiment of absolute evil. Historical Satanism, also called devil worship, consists of belief in and worship of the Judeo-Christian Devil and t...
ebcd297367aa42384b11559c540a08dd
https://www.britannica.com/topic/satrap
Satrap
Satrap Satrap, provincial governor in the Achaemenian Empire. The division of the empire into provinces (satrapies) was completed by Darius I (reigned 522–486 bc), who established 20 satrapies with their annual tribute. The satraps, appointed by the king, normally were members of the royal family or of Persian nobili...
5f82831294e50f4891219839955229d9
https://www.britannica.com/topic/sauce
Sauce
Sauce Sauce, liquid or semiliquid mixture that is added to a food as it cooks or that is served with it. Sauces provide flavour, moisture, and a contrast in texture and colour. They may also serve as a medium in which food is contained, for example, the velouté sauce of creamed chicken. Seasoning liquids (soy sauce, h...
43c5291583e0be4e82e5ee9f19954cb4
https://www.britannica.com/topic/sausage
Sausage
Sausage Sausage, meat product made of finely chopped and seasoned meat, which may be fresh, smoked, or pickled and which is then usually stuffed into a casing. Sausages of fish or poultry are also made. The word sausage, from the Latin salsus (“salted”), refers to a food-processing method that had been used for centu...
e29996266d2f28df3f60f6a999732876
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Savages
Savages
Savages …financial crisis of 2008, and Savages (2012), an ensemble thriller about marijuana trafficking that, in its depiction of seedy mayhem, was reminiscent of his earlier U Turn (1997). Snowden (2016) centres on the real-life American intelligence officer who exposed the NSA’s secret surveillance programs by leakin...
fea144cadf1f3eae5188ef39f5c7816c
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Savara
Savara
Savara Savara, also called Saora, Sora, or Saura, tribe of eastern India. They are distributed mainly in the states of Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, and Bihār, with total numbers of about 310,000, most of whom are in Orissa. Most Savara have become Hinduized and generally speak the Oriya language. Their trad...
1e53511ae6b6b0f3387805b2b04bd530
https://www.britannica.com/topic/sawdust
Sawdust
Sawdust …the wood-using industries, such as sawdust, has increasingly been used for pulp. In addition, more abundant and less desirable hardwoods have been used as a source of pulp. The woodyard of a pulp mill formerly stored pulpwood in the form of roundwood logs, but recently there has been a trend…
f040b586facea3469edf7fe0034d0438
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Saxon-dynasty
Saxon Dynasty
Saxon Dynasty Saxon Dynasty, also called Liudolfing Dynasty, ruling house of German kings (Holy Roman emperors) from 919 to 1024. It came to power when the Liudolfing duke of Saxony was elected German king as Henry I (later called the Fowler), in 919. Henry I’s son and successor, Otto I the Great (king 936–973, wester...
fad8adf965812ebd7fbdd16a97ac4d77
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Scandinavian
Scandinavian
Scandinavian …among the descendants of the Scandinavian newcomers of the 19th century. Where these people clustered in sizeable settlements, as in Minnesota, they transmitted a sense of identity beyond the second generation; and emotional attachments to the lands of origin lingered.
b5ff3ed6fcced6fac6609e04f119fcd5
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Scandinavian-languages
Scandinavian languages
Scandinavian languages Scandinavian languages, also called North Germanic languages, group of Germanic languages consisting of modern standard Danish, Swedish, Norwegian (Dano-Norwegian and New Norwegian), Icelandic, and Faroese. These languages are usually divided into East Scandinavian (Danish and Swedish) and West ...
4de7c706bb6f441b2397572eb526d65c
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Scaramouche
Scaramouche
Scaramouche Scaramouche, Italian Scaramuccia, stock character of the Italian theatrical form known as the commedia dell’arte; an unscrupulous and unreliable servant. His affinity for intrigue often landed him in difficult situations, yet he always managed to extricate himself, usually leaving an innocent bystander as ...
5a1ee6b8f606add788629d30d5c1dbd7
https://www.britannica.com/topic/scarecrow-agriculture
Scarecrow
Scarecrow Scarecrow, device posted on cultivated ground to deter birds or other animals from eating or otherwise disturbing seeds, shoots, and fruit; its name derives from its use against the crow. The scarecrow of popular tradition is a mannequin stuffed with straw; free-hanging, often reflective parts movable by th...
788c2c9dea1e49ecea904a4b8bcc35fd
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Scarface
Scarface
Scarface De Palma then made Scarface (1983), an over-the-top yet effective updating of Howard Hawks’s 1932 gangster classic. It traced the rise and fall of Tony Montana (Al Pacino), a Cuban refugee who takes over Miami’s drug trade. The violent film, with a script by Oliver Stone, drew mixed reviews,… …of Brian De Palm...
114fc8334d679d970fff4391ca7d2c7d
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Scarface-The-Shame-of-a-Nation
Scarface: The Shame of a Nation
Scarface: The Shame of a Nation Scarface: The Shame of a Nation, American gangster film, released in 1932, that is loosely based on the rise of Al Capone. It was an early success for both director Howard Hawks and actor Paul Muni. The film traces the life and crimes of an ambitious gangster, Tony Camonte (played by Mu...
1bfebe3effaf38bb19f2780bc53cb321
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Scarlet-Street
Scarlet Street
Scarlet Street …Woman in the Window for Scarlet Street (1945), a remake of Jean Renoir’s La Chienne (1931). Robinson delivered another extraordinary performance as the appropriately named Chris Cross, a milquetoast department-store cashier whose shrewish wife (Rosalind Ivan) denies him every pleasure except the one he ...
c8cdbb016e441049601bb51993456e94
https://www.britannica.com/topic/schism
Schism
Schism Schism, in Christianity, a break in the unity of the church. In the early church, “schism” was used to describe those groups that broke with the church and established rival churches. The term originally referred to those divisions that were caused by disagreement over something other than basic doctrine. Thus...
440380fc3092dfa92dc16c4546d615d7
https://www.britannica.com/topic/scholarship-study-grant
Scholarship
Scholarship College football’s other post-World War II crisis, regarding professionalism, reached a flash point in the late 1940s and early 1950s over athletic scholarships. Subsidizing athletes had been common since the 1920s but was not officially sanctioned and was entirely unregulated,…
c59a38d1983dc1081ce8a295521c5dcb
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Scholasticism
Scholasticism
Scholasticism Scholasticism, the philosophical systems and speculative tendencies of various medieval Christian thinkers, who, working against a background of fixed religious dogma, sought to solve anew general philosophical problems (as of faith and reason, will and intellect, realism and nominalism, and the provabil...
15eb8d321b7b309a155712752955525d
https://www.britannica.com/topic/School-Daze
School Daze
School Daze …step show in the film School Daze (1988). …his experiences at Morehouse, was School Daze (1988), a scatological satire of colour prejudice, snobbery, and betrayal within the Black academic community. The infamous Howard Beach incident (1986), in which a Black man in Queens, New York, was chased and killed ...
a12ad4ca9991d2610319d2ce32f59df5
https://www.britannica.com/topic/school-education
School
School …sponsored by cultural centres and educational institutions, such as Berlin’s philharmonic hall (1963) by Hans Scharoun. Louis I. Kahn, in his design for the Richards Medical Research Building (1960), gave the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia a linear programmatic composition of laboratories, each serv...
8febc65d4f3a94e09ac0c01df271d6c3
https://www.britannica.com/topic/School-of-Athens
School of Athens
School of Athens …Aristotle in Raphael’s Vatican fresco The School of Athens.) In fact, however, the doctrines that Plato and Aristotle share are more important than those that divide them. Many post-Renaissance historians of ideas have been less perceptive than the commentators of late antiquity, who saw it as their d...
08b11dfbee65d4fb5c1f74694b2eb875
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Science-and-Human-Values
Science and Human Values
Science and Human Values … (1951) and the highly praised Science and Human Values (1956; rev. ed. 1965). In these books Bronowski examined aspects of science in nontechnical language and made a case for his view that science needs an ethos in order to function. In The Identity of Man (1965) he sought to present…
1a62ee4620cb0744015f5ba1baa74d52
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Science-Museum-London
Science Museum
Science Museum Science Museum, museum that is the headquarters of Britain’s National Museum of Science and Industry and is one of the greatest museums of science and technology in the world. It is located in South Kensington, London, near the Natural History Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum. The Science Museu...
3ba7baf31c6d6df21ccd28093e42ece9
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Scientific-Humanitarian-Committee
Scientific-Humanitarian Committee
Scientific-Humanitarian Committee …with the founding of the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee (Wissenschaftlich-humanitäres Komitee; WhK) in Berlin. Their first activity was a petition to call for the repeal of Paragraph 175 of the Imperial Penal Code (submitted 1898, 1922, and 1925). The committee published emancipati...
6b6ff933f10ca87363c34a06c06d5064
https://www.britannica.com/topic/scientific-realism
Scientific realism
Scientific realism The dispute between scientific realists and antirealists, though often associated with conflicting ontological attitudes toward the unobserved (and perhaps unobservable) entities ostensibly postulated by some scientific theories, primarily concerns the status of the theories themselves and what scien...
3df455c46795fc51df1d98f5bf3fff79
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Scorpius-X-1
Scorpius X-1
Scorpius X-1 Scorpius X-1, (catalog number Sco X-1), brightest X-ray source in the sky, the first such object discovered in the direction of the constellation Scorpius. Detected in 1962, its X-radiation is not only strong but, like other X-ray sources, quite variable as well. Its variability exhibits two states, one a...
29211a16dba2c6d06626ac1832670e83
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Scots-Gaelic-language
Scots Gaelic language
Scots Gaelic language Scots Gaelic language, also called Scottish Gaelic, Scots Gaelic Gàidhlig, a member of the Goidelic group of Celtic languages, spoken along the northwest coast of Scotland and in the Hebrides islands. Australia, the United States, and Canada (particularly Nova Scotia) are also home to Scots Gaeli...
fb06f41fb73989ae694dd4ed416a847c
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Scottish-law
Scottish law
Scottish law Scottish law, the legal practices and institutions of Scotland. At the union of the parliaments of England and Scotland in 1707, the legal systems of the two countries were very dissimilar. Scotland, mainly in the preceding century, had adopted as a guide much of the Roman law that had been developed by t...
45b18989f2c26bae2eff9df3cd819202
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Scottish-National-Party
Scottish National Party
Scottish National Party Scottish National Party (SNP), nationalist political party that has sought to make Scotland an independent state within the European Union (EU). The SNP was formed in 1934 from a union of the National Party of Scotland (founded in 1928) and the Scottish Party (1932). From the beginning, disagre...
0ea8fdae658c550191a13d7bf0093a8c
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Scribbled-in-the-Dark
Scribbled in the Dark
Scribbled in the Dark Scribbled in the Dark was published in 2017. Simic received a Pulitzer Prize for poetry for The World Doesn’t End (1989). His other honours include the Wallace Stevens Award (2007) and the Frost Medal (2011).
4afe992934e597c16f98564455bbae74
https://www.britannica.com/topic/scribe
Scribe
Scribe At royal command, scribes searched out and collected or copied texts of every genre from temple libraries. These were added to the basic collection of tablets culled from Ashur, Calah, and Nineveh itself. The major group includes omen texts based on observations of events; on the behaviour and… …designed for the...
849704a2c4b60d17e02c3556ea11a39a
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Scrubs
Scrubs
Scrubs Scrubs, medical-themed American television comedy that aired on the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) network for seven seasons beginning in 2001 before moving to the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) network; the show ended in 2010. Much praised by critics, Scrubs received a George Foster Peabody Award in ...
9362187a8f38dc964c8a18f108a836e3
https://www.britannica.com/topic/scyphatus
Scyphatus
Scyphatus …shape, hence the name nummi scyphati (cup money); gold scyphati declined in purity until, under Nicephorus III (1078–81), they were very base. Silver remained generally scarce; the issue of bronze became uneven. New conventions in legends and types were introduced: Constantine IX (1042–55) showed on his silv...
f1aea0a4a390daaec2f9ccd2a074ec37
https://www.britannica.com/topic/sea-grant
Sea grant
Sea grant Sea grant, a grant-in-aid to an American academic or scientific institution to enhance development of coastal and marine resources in the Great Lakes and the oceans around the United States. The sea-grant program was established by act of U.S. Congress in 1966 and was originally administered by the National ...
048fc7677312f1a03feed362653884a4
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Sea-People
Sea People
Sea People Sea People, any of the groups of aggressive seafarers who invaded eastern Anatolia, Syria, Palestine, Cyprus, and Egypt toward the end of the Bronze Age, especially in the 13th century bce. They are held responsible for the destruction of old powers such as the Hittite empire. Because of the abrupt break in...
bac3191ba7fc8a22133b83be212f483d
https://www.britannica.com/topic/sea-power
Sea power
Sea power Sea power, means by which a nation extends its military power onto the seas. Measured in terms of a nation’s capacity to use the seas in defiance of rivals and competitors, it consists of such diverse elements as combat craft and weapons, auxiliary craft, commercial shipping, bases, and trained personnel. A...
96affcc1cee818b6f2817f93cdc35ec7
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Seabiscuit-film
Seabiscuit
Seabiscuit His subsequent films include Seabiscuit (2003), Stick It (2006), and Iron Man (2008), which was based on the Marvel Comics comic strip. In 2009 Bridges starred with George Clooney in The Men Who Stare at Goats, a comedy that centres on a secret U.S. Army unit trained to use… …play a horse trainer in Seabiscu...
456fe8f8aebba0a5a6e0dc6ded7ce02e
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Seagram-Company-Ltd
Seagram Company Ltd.
Seagram Company Ltd. Seagram Company Ltd., former Canadian corporation that was the world’s largest producer and distributor of distilled spirits. The company began when Distillers Corp., Ltd., a Montreal distillery owned by Samuel Bronfman, acquired Joseph E. Seagram & Sons in 1928. The new company, named Distillers ...
9d92c95b3c9a79cafb661ddba8f81230
https://www.britannica.com/topic/search-and-seizure
Search and seizure
Search and seizure Search and seizure, practices engaged in by law enforcement officers in order to gain sufficient evidence to ensure the arrest and conviction of an offender. The latitude allowed police and other law enforcement agents in carrying out searches and seizures varies considerably from country to countr...
6f7d7d9d45023bdef0a7956ff2a5fbe1
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Season-of-Glass
Season of Glass
Season of Glass …Ice” (1981) and the album Season of Glass (1981), which captured her emotional reaction to Lennon’s death, among the highlights. Her later releases include Rising (1995), recorded with Sean’s band IMA, and Between My Head and the Sky (2009), for which she resurrected the Plastic Ono Band moniker. Begin...
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https://www.britannica.com/topic/Seattle-Seahawks
Seattle Seahawks
Seattle Seahawks Seattle Seahawks, American professional gridiron football team based in Seattle. The Seahawks play in the National Football Conference (NFC) of the National Football League (NFL) and have won one Super Bowl title (2014) and three NFC championships (2006, 2014, and 2015). Along with fellow expansion te...
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https://www.britannica.com/topic/Second-All-Russian-Congress-of-Soviets
Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets
Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets …would attempt to disrupt the Second All-Russian Congress, scheduled to open on October 25 (November 7, New Style); they reacted by sending troops to take over key communications and transportation points of the city. Lenin, who had been in hiding, appeared on the scene to urge th...
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https://www.britannica.com/topic/Second-Empire
Second Empire
Second Empire Second Empire, (1852–70) period in France under the rule of Emperor Napoleon III (the original empire having been that of Napoleon I). In its early years (1852–59), the empire was authoritarian but enjoyed economic growth and pursued a favourable foreign policy. Liberal reforms were gradually introduced ...
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https://www.britannica.com/topic/Second-Industrial-Revolution
Second Industrial Revolution
Second Industrial Revolution As during the previous half century, much of the framework for Europe’s history following 1850 was set by rapidly changing social and economic patterns, which extended to virtually the entire continent. In western Europe, shifts were less dramatic than they had been… Despite considerable ov...
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https://www.britannica.com/topic/Second-International-Congress-of-Mathematics
Second International Congress of Mathematics
Second International Congress of Mathematics …Congress of Philosophy and the Second International Congress of Mathematics held consecutively in Paris in August 1900. The overlap between the two congresses was extensive and fortunate for the future of logic and philosophy. Peano, Alessandro Padoa, Burali-Forti, Schröder...
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https://www.britannica.com/topic/Second-Life
Second Life
Second Life Second Life, life-simulation network on the Internet created in 2003 by the American company Linden Research, Inc. Second Life allows users to create and manage the lives of avatars they create in an advanced social setting with other online “Residents.” Although it parallels a video game in some ways, Sec...
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https://www.britannica.com/topic/Second-Piano-Sonata
Second Piano Sonata
Second Piano Sonata His monumental Second Piano Sonata (subtitled Concord, Mass., 1840–60), which was written from 1909 to 1915 and first performed in 1938, echoes the spirit of the New England Transcendentalists in its four sections, “Emerson,” “Hawthorne,” “The Alcotts,” and “Thoreau.” It contains tone clusters, quot...
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https://www.britannica.com/topic/Second-Republic-Lebanese-history
Second Republic
Second Republic The immediate challenges of Lebanon’s post-civil war period were to reconstruct the country’s social and economic infrastructure and to institutionalize the political reforms agreed to at Ṭāʾif. The
80a5ceb93f8ca06bd4bbd59e31a88323
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Second-Republic-Spanish-history
Second Republic
Second Republic The history of the Second Republic falls into four distinct phases: (1) the Provisional Government, which lasted until the religious issue forced its resignation in October 1931, (2) the governments of the Left Republicans and Socialists, which ruled from October 1931 and were… …of 1931 that established...
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https://www.britannica.com/topic/second-strike-capability
Secure second strike
Secure second strike Secure second strike, the ability, after being struck by a nuclear attack, to strike back with nuclear weapons and cause massive damage to the enemy. Secure second strike capability was seen as a key nuclear deterrent during the Cold War. The strategy also partially explained the extraordinarily h...
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https://www.britannica.com/topic/Second-String-Quartet
Second String Quartet
Second String Quartet Ives conceived his Second String Quartet (1911–13; composition on second movement begun 1907) as a conversation, political argument, and reconciliation among four men; it is full of quotations from hymns, marches, and Beethoven, Brahms, and Tchaikovsky. His Variations on America (1891; additions b...
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https://www.britannica.com/topic/Second-Symphony-by-Rachmaninoff
Second Symphony
Second Symphony Of these, the Symphony No. 2 is the most significant: it is a work of deep emotion and haunting thematic material. While touring, he was invited to become permanent conductor of the Boston Symphony, but he declined the offer and returned to Russia in February 1910.
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https://www.britannica.com/topic/secondary-feeder
Secondary feeder
Secondary feeder …community, and smaller-diameter pipelines called secondary feeders, which tie in to the mains. Usually not less than 150 mm (6 inches) in diameter, these pipelines are placed within the public right-of-way so that service connections can be made for all potential water users. The pipelines are usually...
d38b2f36eafe47bfc5c35ee7c99f9ac9
https://www.britannica.com/topic/secondary-modern-school
Secondary modern school
Secondary modern school …students receive secondary education in secondary modern or grammar schools (these being remnants of the old tripartite school system), to which they are assigned after selective procedures at age 11.
ce87f48f9a9ed3a6d13487ad4c5507b6
https://www.britannica.com/topic/secondary-motion
Secondary motion
Secondary motion …introduce a proposition, or as secondary motions, which are designed to affect the main motion or its consideration. A main motion is in order only when there is no other business before an assembly. It yields in precedence to all other questions.
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https://www.britannica.com/topic/secret-police
Secret police
Secret police Secret police, Police established by national governments to maintain political and social control. Generally clandestine, secret police have operated independently of the civil police. Particularly notorious examples were the Nazi Gestapo, the Russian KGB, and the East German Stasi. Secret-police tactic...
5aee39524b796d30d5b57acd5435587e
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Securitate
Securitate
Securitate The party also established the Securitate, the centrepiece of a vast security network. It dissolved private organizations of all kinds and severely curtailed the ability of churches to perform their spiritual and educational tasks. In their place, and mainly in order to mobilize public opinion, it created ma...
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https://www.britannica.com/topic/Securities-and-Exchange-Commission
Securities and Exchange Commission
Securities and Exchange Commission Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), U.S. regulatory commission established by Congress in 1934 after the Senate Committee on Banking and Currency investigated the New York Stock Exchange’s operations. The commission’s purpose was to restore investor confidence by ending mislead...
058ee9eb077e84faa2d4fe19ad7f8f5d
https://www.britannica.com/topic/sedition
Sedition
Sedition Sedition, crime against the state. Though sedition may have the same ultimate effect as treason, it is generally limited to the offense of organizing or encouraging opposition to government in a manner (such as in speech or writing) that falls short of the more dangerous offenses constituting treason. The pu...
7462bde29fc3307c2415681fcde1d8b7
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Sefer-ha-zohar
Sefer ha-zohar
Sefer ha-zohar Sefer ha-zohar, (Hebrew: “Book of Splendour”), 13th-century book, mostly in Aramaic, that is the classic text of esoteric Jewish mysticism, or Kabbala. Though esoteric mysticism was taught by Jews as early as the 1st century ad, the Zohar gave new life and impetus to mystical speculations through the 14...
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https://www.britannica.com/topic/Seimas
Seimas
Seimas …president and a legislature, the Seimas, under a parliamentary system. The Seimas consists of 141 members, who are elected to four-year terms. The prime minister, formally appointed by the president, oversees the country’s day-to-day affairs and is generally the leader of the Seimas’s majority party. The presid...
23cd8af2a4436f249034f1033d622ed8
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Sekhmet
Sekhmet
Sekhmet Sekhmet, also spelled Sakhmet, in Egyptian religion, a goddess of war and the destroyer of the enemies of the sun god Re. Sekhmet was associated both with disease and with healing and medicine. Like other fierce goddesses in the Egyptian pantheon, she was called the “Eye of Re.” She was the companion of the go...
2b4bfb6ff05857068408d99547f9d3a8
https://www.britannica.com/topic/self-fulfilling-prophecy
Self-fulfilling prophecy
Self-fulfilling prophecy Self-fulfilling prophecy, process through which an originally false expectation leads to its own confirmation. In a self-fulfilling prophecy an individual’s expectations about another person or entity eventually result in the other person or entity acting in ways that confirm the expectations....
5d188d0db07827ea905900f7e5fe1912
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Semelaic-languages
Semelaic languages
Semelaic languages Semelaic languages, also called Southern Aslian Languages, (from Malay orang asli, “aborigines”), subbranch of the Aslian branch of the Mon-Khmer language family, which is itself a part of the Austroasiatic stock. The subbranch consists of three languages spoken in southern and central Malaysia: Be...
7ef92307f60584bc8fa7618979f004c1
https://www.britannica.com/topic/semi-pukka
Semi-pukka
Semi-pukka …bamboo, reeds, or thatch); and semi-pukka houses, which are a mix between the two. Housing stocks comprise an equal number of semi-pukka and katchi houses (about two-fifths each), and remaining houses (roughly one-fifth of the total) are the better-variety pukka houses. Urban areas are dominated by ramshack...
7cadea6286458b739b54a50c0535bc55
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Senate-Roman-history
Senate
Senate Senate, in ancient Rome, the governing and advisory council that proved to be the most permanent element in the Roman constitution. Under the early monarchy the Senate developed as an advisory council; in 509 bc it contained 300 members, and a distinction existed within it between the heads of the greater and o...
c7abe0ba9f9a1e59c46908d0789a2b9d
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Sense-and-Sensibility-film-by-Lee
Sense and Sensibility
Sense and Sensibility …Thompson wrote and starred in Sense and Sensibility, based on Jane Austen’s novel. The film was a critical and commercial success, and Thompson won an Academy Award for best adapted screenplay and a BAFTA Award for best actress. She also later married (2003) costar Greg Wise. In 2001 Thompson wro...
8a7445922d7db09ff34e967ec237b882
https://www.britannica.com/topic/sense-data
Sense-data
Sense-data Sense-data, Entities that are the direct objects of sensation. Examples of sense-data are the circular image one sees when viewing the face of a penny and the oblong image one sees when viewing the penny from an angle. Other examples are the image one sees with one’s eyes closed after staring at a bright li...
a92162d627c3913e3e300513d8908d28
https://www.britannica.com/topic/sensitivity-training
Sensitivity training
Sensitivity training Sensitivity training, psychological technique in which intensive group discussion and interaction are used to increase individual awareness of self and others; it is practiced in a variety of forms under such names as T-group, encounter group, human relations, and group-dynamics training. The gro...
57ee21cbea6913d7fef2ff78944c6b25
https://www.britannica.com/topic/sentence-law
Sentence
Sentence Sentence, in law, formal judgment of a convicted defendant in a criminal case setting the punishment to be meted out. In civil cases the terms decision, award, and judgment are used. Various types of sentences can be given. In cumulative sentences a defendant convicted on several counts receives a separate s...
c1d8e5b9fdec1dccc7b1c23158cf0592
https://www.britannica.com/topic/separation-of-powers
Separation of powers
Separation of powers Separation of powers, division of the legislative, executive, and judicial functions of government among separate and independent bodies. Such a separation, it has been argued, limits the possibility of arbitrary excesses by government, since the sanction of all three branches is required for the ...
767079db5a298b8e51e86166721c343e
https://www.britannica.com/topic/seppuku
Seppuku
Seppuku Seppuku, (Japanese: “self-disembowelment”) also called hara-kiri, also spelled harakiri, the honourable method of taking one’s own life practiced by men of the samurai (military) class in feudal Japan. The word hara-kiri (literally, “belly-cutting”), though widely known to foreigners, is rarely used by Japanes...