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The supposed origination of living organisms from lifeless matter; such genesis as does not involve the action of living parents; spontaneous generation; -- called also abiogeny, and opposed to biogenesis. I shall call the . . . doctrine that living matter may be produced by not living matter, the hypothesis of abiogen…

The act of bringing down or humbling. "The abjection of the king and his realm." Joe.

Any fruit or produce that does not come to maturity, or anything which in its progress, before it is matured or perfect; a complete failure; as, his attempt. proved an abortiori.

An abrupt place. [Poetic] "Over the vast abrupt." Milton.

ss; unending; profound. Geology gives one the same abysmal extent of time that astronomy does of space. Carlyle.

An academy. [Poetic] Shak.

A group of Coelenterata, including the Medusæ or jellyfishes, and hydroids; -- so called from the stinging power they possess. Sometimes called sea nettles.

Acclamation. [Poetic] Milton.

A growing together of parts naturally separate, as of the fingers toes. Dana.

Deficient and the beginning, as a line of poetry. Brande.

World or infernal regions; also, the infernal regions themselves. By some of the English poets it was supposed to be a flaming lake or gulf. Shak.

oits] of the ancient saints . . . do far surpass the most famous achievements of pagan heroes. Barrow. The highest achievements of the human intellect. Macaulay.

The top or highest point; the culmination. The very acme and pitch of life for epic poetry. Pope. The moment when a certain power reaches the acme of its supremacy. I. Taylor.

The upper surface of the toes, individually.

A Hebrew poem in which the lines or stanzas begin with the letters of the alphabet in regular order (as Psalm cxix.). See Abecedarian. Double acrostic, a species of enigma, in which words are to be guessed whose initial and final letters form other words.

One of the radial segments composing the body of one of the Coelenterata.

The entire body of a coelenterate.

The mouth or anterior opening of a coelenterate animal.

A group of Coelenterata, comprising the Anthozoa Ctenophora. The sea anemone, or actinia, is a familiar example.

or connected series of events, either real or imaginary, forming the subject of a play, poem, or other composition; the unfolding of the drama of events.