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One of a primitive people supposed to have lived in prehistoric times, in Central Asia, east of the Caspian Sea, and north of the Hindoo

Ascent; height; elevation. [R.] Sciences that were then in their highest ascendant. Temple.

The act of ascending; a rising; ascent.

Relating to ascension; connected with ascent; ascensive; tending upward; as, the ascensional power of a balloon. Ascensional difference (Astron.), the difference between oblique and right ascension; -- used chiefly as expressing the difference between the time of the rising or setting of a body and six o'clock, or six…

or the purity of a metal. He was there only for the purpose of ascertaining whether a descent on England was practicable. Macaulay.

See Acescency, Acescent. [Obs.]

Not liable to putrefaction; nonputrescent. -- n.

On shore or on land; on the land adjacent to water; to the shore; to the land; aground (when applied to a ship); -- sometimes opposed to aboard or afloat. Here shall I die ashore. Shak. I must fetch his necessaries ashore. Shak.

A small, hooded, poisonous serpent of Egypt and adjacent countries, whose bite is often fatal. It is the Naja haje. The name is also applied to other poisonous serpents, esp. to Vipera aspis of southern Europe. See Haje.

on, community, estate, or income); to tax; as, the club assessed each member twenty- five cents.

A peculiar species of rhyme, in which the last accented vowel and those which follow it in one word correspond in sound with the vowels of another word, while the consonants of the two words are unlike in sound; as, calamo and platano, baby and chary. The assonance is peculiar to the Spaniard. Hallam.…

A festival in honor of the ascent of the Virgin Mary into heaven.

Of or pertaining to Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria in the 4th century. Athanasian creed, a formulary, confession, or exposition of faith, formerly supposed to have been drawn up by Athanasius; but this opinion is now rejected, and the composition is ascribed by some to Hilary, bishop of Arles (5th century). It is a s…

that pressure under which the barometer stands at 760 millimeters, at a temperature of 0º Centigrade, at the level of the sea, and in the latitude of Paris. Sir W. Thomson.

al island or islands, consisting of a belt of coral reef, partly submerged, surrounding a central lagoon or depression; a lagoon island.

Unaccented; as, an atonic syllable.

in order or orders of a facade, in the classical styles; -- a term introduced in the 17th century. Hence:

The central mass of the aster in mitotic cell division; centrosphere.

A philosophic movement of the 18th century characterized by a lively questioning of authority, keen interest in matters of politics and general culture, and an emphasis on empirical method in science. It received its impetus from the unsystematic but vigorous skepticism of Pierre Bayle, the physical doctrines of Newton…

member of the conservative party in the Church of Scotland in the latter part of the 18th century.