| Alexander the Great |
the king of Macedonia in 336-323 B.C. and conqueror of an empire that included Persia, Egypt, and part of Greece (356-323 B.C.). |
| Alexandria |
an Egyptian seaport on the Nile delta, founded by Alexander the Great. |
| Alexandrian |
of or pertaining to Alexander the Great or the period of his reign. [2 definitions] |
| alexandrine |
(sometimes cap.) in poetry, a twelve-syllable line with alternating unstressed and stressed syllables, usu. with a clear pause after six syllables. [2 definitions] |
| Alex Haley |
a U.S. author celebrated for his pulitzer prize-winning work of historical fiction, Roots: The Saga of an American Family (1976), a publication whose subsequent television broadcast adaptation spawned a national discussion about race and race relations (b.1921--d.1992). |
| alexia |
the loss of reading ability, caused by lesions in the brain. |
| alfalfa |
a legume with purple flowers that is grown widely as forage for cattle and horses. |
| al fine |
to the finish (used as a musical direction to continue to the end of a repeated section). |
| Alfred Nobel |
a Swedish engineer, industrialist, and philanthropist who invented dynamite and established the Nobel prizes (b.1833--d.1896). |
| alfresco |
in the open air; outdoors. [2 definitions] |
| alga |
any of various primitive, chiefly aquatic plants that have no roots, stems, or leaves, including the seaweeds and diatoms. |
| algae |
organisms that live mainly in the water and make their food through photosynthesis. Algae are different from plants in that they have no true leaves, roots, or stems. Seaweeds are algae. "Algae" is a plural noun; the singular form is "alga." |
| algebra |
a form of elementary mathematics, used esp. in solving equations, in which letters stand for unknown or variable quantities. [2 definitions] |
| algebraic |
of, used in, or of the nature of algebra. |
| algebraic fraction |
a fraction that has at least one algebraic variable or expression in the numerator or denominator, such as 1/x. |
| Alger Hiss |
a lawyer and U.S. public official accused in 1948 of having acted as a Communist spy in the 1930s. Convicted in 1950 on counts of perjury related to the investigation, Hiss was sentenced to five years in prison but maintained his innocence until his death (b.1904--d.1996). |
| Algeria |
a North African country located between Morocco and Libya, formerly a French colony. |
| -algia |
pain. |
| algid |
cold; chill. |
| Algiers |
the seaport capital of Algeria. |
| Algol |
an eclipsing binary star in the constellation Perseus, having a magnitude that varies between 2.3 and 3.4. |