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A twelfth part of the heavens, as divided by six circles intersecting at the north and south points of the horizon, used by astrologers in noting the positions of the heavenly bodies, and casting horoscopes or nativities. The houses were regarded as fixed in respect to the horizon, and numbered from the one at the east…

Under the tongue; -- applied esp., in the higher vertebrates, to the twelfth or last pair of cranial nerves, which are distributed to the base of the tongue. -- n.

A Japanese measure of length equal to about two and one twelfth yards. [Written also ink.]

A measure of length, the twelfth part of a foot, commonly subdivided into halves, quarters, eights, sixteenths, etc., as among mechanics. It was also formerly divided into twelve parts, called lines, and originally into three parts, called barleycorns, its length supposed to have been determined from three grains of ba…

L is the twelfth letter of the English alphabet, and a vocal consonant. It is usually called a semivowel or liquid. Its form and value are from the Greek, through the Latin, the form of the Greek letter being from the Phoenician, and the ultimate origin prob. Egyptian. Etymologically, it is most closely related to r an…

th the middle; -- so named from Leo, or Leoninus, a Benedictine and canon of Paris in the twelfth century, who wrote largely in this measure, though he was not the inventor. The following line is an example: Gloria factorum temere conceditur horum.

A measure of length; one twelfth of an inch. Hard lines, hard lot. C. Kingsley. [See Def. 18.] -- Line breeding (Stockbreeding), breeding by a certain family line of descent, especially in the selection of the dam or mother. -- Line conch (Zoöl.), a spiral marine shell (Fasciolaria distans), of Florida and the West In…

agnitude being just visible to the naked eye. Telescopic stars are classified down to the twelfth magnitude or lower. The scale of the magnitudes is quite arbitrary, but by means of photometers, the classification has been made to tenths of a magnitude.

A twelfth part of the heavens; a house. See 1st House, 8. Chaucer.

one of a class of German poets and musicians who flourished from about the middle of the twelfth to the middle of the fourteenth century. They were chiefly of noble birth, and made love and beauty the subjects of their verses.

One of the twelve portions into which the year is divided; the twelfth part of a year, corresponding nearly to the length of a synodic revolution of the moon, -- whence the name. In popular use, a period of four weeks is often called a month.

The twelfth part of a troy pound.

h yields the fundamental tone; one of the natural harmonic scale of tones, as the octave, twelfth, fifteenth, etc.; an aliquot or "partial" tone; a harmonic. See Harmonic, and Tone. Tyndall.

An English coin, formerly of copper, now of bronze, the twelfth part of an English shilling in account value, and equal to four farthings, or about two cents; -- usually indicated by the abbreviation d. (the initial of denarius).

The twelfth sign of the zodiac, marked pisces in almanacs.

A standard unit of measure for the size of type bodies, being one twelfth of the thickness of pica type. See Point system of type, under Type.

In the duodecimal system of mensuration, the twelfth part of an inch or prime; a line. See Inch, and Prime, n., 8.

An aspect of the planets when they are distant from each other the twelfth part of a circle, or thirty degrees. Hutton.

The twelfth part of the ecliptic or zodiac.

eutonic order, a military religious order of knights, established toward the close of the twelfth century, in imitation of the Templars and Hospitalers, and composed chiefly of Teutons, or Germans. The order rapidly increased in numbers and strength till it became master of all Prussia, Livonia, and Pomerania. In its d…