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A name given to a group of minerals, closely related in crystalline form, and all silicates of alumina with either potash, soda, lime, or, in one case, baryta. They occur in crystals and crystalline masses, vitreous in luster, and breaking rather easily in two directions at right angles to each other, or nearly so. The…

A group of mammals which formerly included the Carnivora, Insectivora, Marsupialia, and lemurs, but is now often restricted to the Carnivora.

e nation is in a ferment. Walpole. in a ferment in a state of agitation, applied to human groups.

One who dances at the opera, not singly, but in groups or figures; an accessory character on the stage, who figures in its scenes, but has nothing to say; hence, one who figures in any scene, without taking a prominent part.

Any short succession of notes, either as melody or as a group of chords, which produce a single complete and distinct impression. Grove.

A Northern Turanian group of languages; the language of the Finns.

A group of Lacertilia having the tongue forked, including the common lizards. [Written also Fissilingues.]

A group of birds having the bill deeply cleft.

A group of feathers on the lower part of the legs of certain hawks, owls, etc.

One of a group of stalked rotifers, having ciliated tentacles around the lobed disk.

rongly acid or negative, or associated with chlorine, bromine, and iodine, in the halogen group of which it is the first member. It always occurs combined, is very active chemically, and possesses such an avidity for most elements, and silicon especially, that it can neither be prepared nor kept in glass vessels. If se…

Tending to move away from a center, rather than remain in a compact group; -- used of hair or clothing or of small particles of matter. Light objects or particles readily taking a static electric charge may be moved apart by acquisition of a charge, or by approach of a charged object. Such a property is called flyawa…

One of a group of squirrels, of the genera Pteromus and Sciuropterus, having parachute-like folds of skin extending from the fore to the hind legs, which enable them to make very long leaps.

A group of African edentates including the aard-vark.

cusps in Gothic architecture; a rounded or leaflike ornament, in windows, niches, etc. A group of foils is called trefoil, quatrefoil, quinquefoil, etc., according to the number of arcs of which it is composed. Foil stone, an imitation of a jewel or precious stone.

In Anglo-Saxon times, the people of a group of townships or villages; a community; a tribe. [Obs.] The organization of each folk, as such, sprang mainly from war. J. R. Green.

A group of beds of the same age or period; as, the Eocene formation.

A group of hymenopterous insects including the sand wasps. They excavate cells in earth, where they deposit their eggs, with the bodies of other insects for the food of the young when hatched. [Written also Fossoria.]

A kind of mineral of the spinel group.

The fruit bate; a group of the Cheiroptera, comprising the bats which live on fruits. See Eruit bat, under Fruit.