Search the Dictionary

by internal growth and elongation at the summit, instead of externally, and having no distinction of pith, wood, and bark, as the rattan, the palm, the cornstalk.

A group of Rhizopoda having a distinct nucleus, as the am

at branch of science which treats of the laws governing the physical or mechanical, in distinction from the vital, forces, and which comprehends the consideration and general investigation of the whole range of the forces concerned in physical phenomena. [R.]

copy or write in a large hand (en gross, i. e., in large); to write a fair copy of in distinct and legible characters; as, to engross a deed or like instrument on parchment. Some period long past, when clerks engrossed their stiff and formal chirography on more substantial materials. Hawthorne. Laws that may be engros…

An actuality; a conception completely actualized, in distinction from mere potential existence.

To make distinctly audible; to utter articulately; to pronounce; as, to enunciate a word distinctly.

Mode of utterance or pronunciation, especially as regards fullness and distinctness or articulation; as, to speak with a clear or impressive enunciation.

An unorganized or unformed ferment, in distinction from an organized or living ferment; a soluble, or chemical, ferment. Ptyalin, pepsin, diastase, and rennet are good examples of enzymes.

An extinct marine reptile from the coal measures of Nova Scotia; -- so named because supposed to be of the earliest known reptiles.

One of the gigantic ostrichlike birds of the genus Æpiornis, only recently extinct. Its remains have been found in Madagascar. [Written also Æpyornis.]

Government of the church by bishops; church government by three distinct orders of ministers -- bishops, priests, and deacons -- of whom the bishops have an authority superior and of a different kind.

cal a test." Burke. Equivocal chord (Mus.), a chord which can be resolved into several distinct keys; one whose intervals, being all minor thirds, do not clearly indicate its fundamental tone or root; the chord of the diminished triad, and the diminished seventh.

with a purpose to mislead. There being no room for equivocations, there is no need of distinctions. Locke.

rmitical; living in solitude. "An eremitical life in the woods." Fuller. "The eremitic instinct." Lowell.

d by extensive reading or study; particularly, learning in literature or criticism, as distinct from the sciences; scholarship. The management of a young lady's person is not be overlooked, but the erudition of her mind is much more to be regarded. Steele. The gay young gentleman whose erudition sat so easily upon him.…

The red coloring matter of leaves, fruits, flowers, etc., in distinction from chlorophyll.

A body of armed men to attend a person of distinction for the sake of affording safety when on a journey; one who conducts some one as an attendant; a guard, as of prisoners on a march; also, a body of persons, attending as a mark of respect or honor; -- applied to movements on land, as convoy is to movements at sea. T…

ogical accidents; that quality which constitutes or marks the true nature of anything; distinctive character; hence, virtue or quality of a thing, separated from its grosser parts. The laws are at present, both in form and essence, the greatest curse that society labors under. Landor. Gifts and alms are the expressions…

Necessary; indispensable; -- said of those tones which constitute a chord, in distinction from ornamental or passing tones.

nd friendly with. We must estrange our belief from everything which is not clearly and distinctly evidenced. Glanvill. Had we . . . estranged ourselves from them in things indifferent. Hooker.