Academy Awards The Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, are the most prominent film awards in the United States and most watched awards ceremony in the world. The Awards are granted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, a professional honorary organization, which as of 2003 had a voting membership of 5,816.
	Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Founded on May 11, 1927 in California, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is a professional honorary organization dedicated to the advancement of the arts and sciences of motion pictures. The Academy is composed of over 6,000 motion picture professionals. While the great majority of its members are based in the United States, membership is open to qualified filmmakers around the world.
	Acadia Acadia was the name given by the France to a French colonial empires in northeastern North America that included parts of eastern Quebec, the Maritimes, and modern-day New England, stretching as far south as Philadelphia.
	Acadia National Park Acadia National Park preserves much of Mount Desert Island, and associated smaller islands, off the Atlantic Ocean of Maine. The area includes mountains, an ocean shoreline, woodlands, and lakes. In addition to Mount Desert Island, the park comprises much of the Isle au Haut, Maine, a small island to the southwest of Mount Desert Island.
	Acadian The Acadians are the descendants of the original France settlers of parts of the northeastern region of North America comprising what is now the Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. Although Acadians and Quebecers are both francophone Canadians, Acadia was founded four years prior to the founding of Quebec and in a geographically separate area.
	Acalypha Acalypha is a plant genus of the family Euphorbiaceae and the sole genus of the subtribe Acalyphinae. With 450 to 500 species of herbs to shrubs, the genus is only behind Euphorbia, Croton and Phyllanthus in term of diversity.
	Acanthaceae The family Acanthaceae is a taxon of dicotyledonous flowering plants containing almost 250 genera and about 2500 species. Most are tropical herbs, shrubs, or twining vines; some are spiny. Only a few species are distributed in temperate regions, the four main centres of distribution are Indo-Malaya, Africa, Brasil and Central America.
	Acanthocephala The Acanthocephala is a phylum of parasitic worms, characterised by the presence of an evertable proboscis, armed with spines, which it uses to pierce and hold the gut wall of its host. Acanthocephalans typically have Parasitic life cycles, involving a number of hosts, including invertebrates, fishes, amphibians, birds, and mammals.
	Acanthocereus Acanthocereus is a genus of cactus. Its species take the form of shrubs with arching or climbing stems up to several meters in height. The six species occur in the Tropics Americas from the southern tip of Florida to Colombia, including islands of the Caribbean.
	Acanthophis Acanthophis is a genus of highly venomous snake Elapidae snakes. Commonly called death adders, they are native to Australia and nearby islands, and are among the most venomous snakes in the world. This genus currently consists of 15 known species.
	Acanthuridae Acanthuridae is the family of surgeonfishes, tangs, and Naso. The family includes about 80 species in six genera, all of which are ocean fish living in tropical seas, usually around coral reefs. Many of the species are brightly colored and extremely popular for aquarium.
	Acanthurus Acanthurus is the type genus of the family Acanthuridae. Ancanthurus refers to a genus of marine tropical reef fishes which are members of the family Aacanthuridae, commonly called acanthurids, surgeonfishes, or tangs. They are characterized by having pairs of defensive knives at base of their tails.
	Acanthus mollis Acanthus mollis, commonly known as Bear's Breech, is a herbaceous perennial plant in the genus Acanthus, native to southern Europe and northwest Africa, and is one of the earliest cultivated species of garden plants. It grows to 2 m tall, with basal clusters of deeply lobed and cut, shining dark green leaf up to 1 m long and 20 cm broad.
	Acapulco Acapulco is a city and major sea port in the state of Guerrero on the Pacific coast of Mexico, 300 km southwest from Mexico City, at . Acapulco is located on a deep, semi-circular bay. Many consider it to be one of the best harbours on the Pacific Ocean coast of Mexico, and it is a port of call for shipping and cruising lines running between Panama and San Francisco, California, United States.
	Acarina Acarina or Acari is an order of arachnids that consists of mites and ticks. Though acarina are small to minute, they are extremely numerous. More than 30,000 species have been described, and it is estimated that there are half a million more still undescribed. The study of the animals in this order is acarology.
	Acceleration In physics or physical science, acceleration is defined as the rate of change of velocity. It is thus a vector quantity with dimension length/time. In SI, acceleration is measured in Meter per second squared using an accelerometer.
	Accelerometer An accelerometer is a device for measuring acceleration. An accelerometer inherently measures its own motion, in contrast to a device based on remote sensing. One application for accelerometers is to measure gravity, wherein an accelerometer is specifically configured for use in gravimetry.
	Accentor The accentors are in the only bird family, Prunellidae, which is completely endemic to the Palearctic. This small group of closely related passerines are all in a single genus Prunella. All but the Dunnock and the Japanese Accentor are inhabitants of the mountainous regions of Europe and Asia; these two also occur in lowland areas, as does the Siberian Accentor in the far north of Siberia.
	Accept Accept is a Germans Heavy metal music band from the town of Solingen, originally assembled in the early 1970s by Udo Dirkschneider.
	ACCEPT ACCEPT is the primary nongovernmental organization advocating for the rights of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender people in Romania. It is based in Bucharest. The organization also advocates on behalf of individuals with HIV-AIDS; and carries out many programs to encourage safe sex.
	Accepted Accepted is a 2006 in film comedy film motion picture about a group of high school seniors who, after being rejected from all college#United States of Americas to which they had applied, create their own college.
	Accessibility Accessibility is a general term used to describe the degree to which a system is usable by as many people as possible without modification. It is not to be confused with usability which is used to describe how easily a thing can be used by any type of user. One meaning of accessibility specifically focuses on people with disabilities and their use of assistive devices such as screen-reading web browsers or wheelchairs.
	Accessory fruit An accessory fruit is a fruit where the fleshy part is derived not from the ovary but from some adjacent tissue. The prime example is the strawberry. Other examples include cashew, ficus. Accessory fruit includes false berry.
	Accident An accident is something going wrong unexpectedly. Physical examples include an unintended collision, getting injured by touching something sharp, hot, electricity live, ingesting poisons, or getting injured by not properly landing when jumping. Non-physical examples include babies being born.
	Accipiter The genus Accipiter is a group of Bird of prey in the family Accipitridae, mostly consisting of birds known as Goshawks and Sparrowhawks. These birds are slender with short broad rounded wings and a long tail which helps them maneuver in flight. They have long legs and long sharp talons used to kill their prey and a sharp hooked bill used in feeding.
	Accipitridae The Accipitridae is one of the two main family within the order Falconiformes. Many well-known birds like hawks, eagles, kite, harrier and Old World vultures are included in this group. Largely because of the explosive impact of modern molecular biology, the current classification of the Accipitridae is confused, with different authorities placing them in different orders.
	Acclimatization Acclimatization is the process of an organism adjusting to changes in its Ecosystem, often involving temperature or climate. Acclimatization usually occurs in a short time, and within one organism's lifetime. This may be a discrete occurrence or may instead represent part of a periodic cycle, such as a mammal shedding heavy winter fur in favor of a lighter summer coat.
	Accolade Accolade, a French word adopted in English, originally meaning 'to embrace around the neck', soon extended to similar friendly gestures, may mean : *Accolade, a ceremony formally used in conferring knighthood, consisting of a slight blow to the shoulders with the flat of a blade. **hence, metophorically, an accolade is Praise for an achievement.
	Accommodation reflex The accommodation reflex is a reflex action of the eye, in response to focus on a near object, then looking at distant object, comprising coordinated changes in vergence, lens shape and pupil size. It is dependent on cranial nerve optic nerve, higher centres and cranial nerve oculomotor nerve.
	ACCORD ACCORD is the trade union for HBOS workers. It has 25,000 members and is affiliated with the Trades Union Congress and the Scottish Trades Union Congress. ('HBOS' is a bank holding company, formed from the merger of Halifax Plc and Bank of Scotland.)
	Accordion n accordion is a musical instrument of the handheld bellows-driven free reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as squeezeboxes. The accordion is played by compression and expansion of a bellows, which generates air flow across reed ; a Musical keyboard controls which reeds receive air flow and therefore the tones produced.
	Accra Accra, population 1,970,400 , is the capital city of Ghana. It is Ghana's largest city and its administrative, communications, and economic center. The primary economic activities are financial and other services, agriculture, fishing, and manufacturing such as processed food, lumber and plywood, textiles, clothing, and chemical industry.
	Acculturation Acculturation is the obtainment of culture by an individual or a group of people. The term originally applied only to the process concerning a foreign culture, from the acculturing or accultured recipient point of view, having this foreign culture added and mixed with that of his or her already existing one acquired since birth.
	Accuser The H.I.M.S. Accuser was a Galactic Empire Star Destroyer captained by Captain Firmus Piett in the fictional Star Wars universe. It was part of the Galactic Empire's Storm Squadron, and was sent to ambush Princess Leia and the Rebel Alliance Corellian Corvette Tantive IV over Tatooine in the events of '.
	Ace The word "ace" comes from the Old French word 'as' meaning 'a unit', from the name of a small Ancient Rome coin. It originally meant the side of a die with only one mark, before it was a term for a playing card. Since this was the lowest roll of the die, it traditionally meant 'bad luck' in Middle English, but as the ace is often the highest playing card, its meaning has changed to mean 'high-quality, excellence'.
	ACE inhibitor ACE inhibitors, or inhibitors of angiotensin-converting enzyme, are a group of pharmaceuticals that are used primarily in treatment of hypertension and congestive heart failure, in most cases as the drugs of first choice.
	Ace of Spades In a deck of playing cards, the Ace of Spades is commonly thought of as the highest card in the deck, although the actual value of the card varies from game to game.
	Acer negundo Manitoba Maple, as the species is called in Canada, also known as Ash-leaved Maple or Box Elder in the United States, is a species of maple, which occurs throughout most of North America. It is a small, usually fairly short-lived tree that grows up to 10-20 m tall, with a trunk diameter of 30-50 cm, rarely up to 1 m diameter.
	Acerola Acerola , also known as Barbados Cherry or Wild Crapemyrtle, is a tropical fruit-bearing shrub or small tree in the family Malpighiaceae, native to the West Indies and northern South America. It grows to 3 m tall, with a dense, Spine crown. The leaf are evergreen, simple ovate-lanceolate, 5-10 cm long, with an entire margin.
	Acetal An acetal is a molecule with two single bonded oxygens attached to the same carbon atom. It is essentially equivalent to a ketal except the acetal has one R group as an H- group. In engineering terms,"acetal" can also refer to polyoxymethylene, an engineering plastic containing acetal groups.
	Acetaldehyde Acetaldehyde, systematically known as ethanal, is an organic compound. It is an aldehyde with the chemical formula CarbonHydrogen3CHOxygen. It is a highly reactive flammable liquid with a strong fruity smell. Acetaldehyde occurs naturally in ripe fruit, coffee, and fresh bread and is produced by plants as part of their normal metabolism.
	Acetanilide Acetanilide is an odourless solid chemical of leaf or flake-like appearance. It is also known as N-phenylacetamide, acetanil, or acetanilid, and was formerly known by the trade name antifebrin.
	Acetic acid Acetic acid, also known as ethanoic acid, is an organic compound chemical compound best recognized for giving vinegar its sour taste and pungent smell. Pure water-free acetic acid is a colorless hygroscopic liquid and freezes below 16.7degree Celsius to a colourless crystalline solid.
	Acetic anhydride Acetic anhydride, also known as ethanoic anhydride, is one of the simplest of acid anhydrides. It has the chemical formula C4H6O3 or2O. Acetic anhydride is corrosive, flammable, and its vapour is irritating to the eyes and upper respiratory tract.
	Acetoacetic acid Acetoacetic acid is a beta-keto acid of the keto acid group, its empirical formula is C4H6O3 or CH3COCH2COOH. It is unstable at room temperature, decomposing to acetone and carbon dioxide.
	Acetone In chemistry, acetone is the simplest representative of the ketones. Acetone is a colorless mobile flammable liquid with melting point at -95.4 Celsius and boiling point at 56.53 C. It has a relative density of 0.819. It is readily soluble in water, ethanol, diethyl ether, etc., and itself serves as an important solvent.
	Acetyl In organic chemistry, acetyl, sometimes called ethanoyl, is a functional group, the acyl of acetic acid, with chemical formula -CarbonOxygenCarbonHydrogen3. It is sometimes abbreviated as Ac. The acetyl radical contains a methyl group single-bonded to a carbonyl.
	Acetyl chloride Acetyl chloride, also known as ethanoyl chloride, is an acid chloride derived from acetic acid. It has the formula H3C-COCl and it belongs to the class of organic compounds called acyl halides. The chemical structure of acetyl chloride is shown at right.
	Acetylcholine The chemical compound acetylcholine, often abbreviated as ACh, was the first neurotransmitter to be identified. It is a chemical transmitter in both the peripheral nervous system and central nervous system in many organisms including homo sapiens. Acetylcholine is the neurotransmitter in all autonomic ganglia.
	Acetylene Acetylene is the simplest alkyne hydrocarbon, consisting of two hydrogen atoms and two carbon atoms connected by a triple chemical bond. Because it contains a triple bond, acetylene is an Saturation chemical compound. The carbon-carbon triple bond leaves the carbon atoms with two sp hybrid orbitals for sigma bonding, placing all four atoms in the same straight line, with CCH bond angles of 180.
	Achillea Achillea is a genus of about 85 flowering plants, in the family Asteraceae, commonly referred to as yarrow. They occur in Europe and temperate areas of Asia. A few grow in North America. These plants typically have frilly, hairy, aromatic Leaf. These plants show large, flat clusters of small flowers at the top of the stem.
	Achilles In Greek mythology, Achilles, also Akhilleus or Achilleus was a hero of the Trojan War, the central character and greatest warrior of Homer's Iliad, which takes for its theme, not the War of Troy in its entirety, but specifically the Wrath of Achilles.
	Achilles tendon The Achilles tendon, or the calcaneal tendon is a tendon of the posterior leg. It serves to attach the gastrocnemius and soleus muscles to the calcaneus bone.
	Achimenes Achimenes is a genus of about 25 species of rhizomatous herbs in the flowering plant family Gesneriaceae. They have a multitude of common names such as Magic Flowers, Widow's Tears, Cupid's Bower or Hot Water Plant. The plant's name comes from the Greek word meaning "suffer from cold."
	Achomawi The Achomawi were Native Americans in the United States who lived in northern California. They lived in the Pit River basin near Montgomery Creek in Shasta County, California to Goose Lake on the Oregon line. They were closely related to the Atsugewi.
	Acid dye Acid dye is a member of a class of dye that is applied from an acidic solution. In the home or art studio, the acid used in the dyebath is often vinegar or citric acid. In textiles, acid dyes are effective on protein fibers, i.e. animal hair fibers like wool, alpaca and mohair.
	Acid rain Acid rain occurs when sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides are emitted into the atmosphere, undergo chemical transformations and are absorbed by water droplets in clouds. The droplets then fall to earth as rain, snow, or sleet. This can increase the acidity of the soil, and affect the chemical balance of lakes and streams.erm "acid rain" is sometimes used more generally to include all forms of acid deposition - both Deposition , where acidic gases and particles are removed by rain or other Precipitation
	Acid Test Acid Test may refer to: * Litmus test, a common pH test * Acid2, a Cascading Style Sheets test * a method using aqua regia to determine if real gold is found * a phrase that refers to a foolproof test that will accurately determine the validity of something * The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, a novel written by Tom Wolfe
	Acid-fast Acid-fastness is a physical property of some bacterium referring to their resistance to decolorization by acids during staining procedures. Acid-fast organisms are difficult to characterize using standard microbiological techniques, though they can be stained using concentrated dyes, particularly when the staining process is combined with heat.
	Acinos Acinos is a genus of ten species of annual plant and short-lived evergreen perennial plant woody plant plants native to southern Europe and western Asia. Its name comes from the Greek word akinos, the name of a small aromatic plant.
	Acipenseridae Acipenseridae is a family of ray-finned fish in the order Acipenseriformes, including the sturgeons and their relatives. *Subfamily Acipenserinae **Genus Acipenser ***Acipenser baerii ****Siberian sturgeon, Acipenser baerii baerii ****Baikal sturgeon, Acipenser baerii baicalensis
	Ackee The Ackee or Akee is a member of the Sapindaceae, native to tropical West Africa. It is related to the Lychee and the Longan, and is an evergreen tree that grows about 10 metres tall, with a short trunk and a dense crown. The leaf are pinnate, leathery, compound, 15-30 cm long, with 6-10 elliptical obovate-oblong leaflets.
	Acne vulgaris Acne vulgaris is an inflammatory disease of the skin, caused by changes in the pilosebaceous units. Acne lesions are commonly referred to as pimples, spots or zits. The condition is common in puberty, especially among Western world societies most likely due to a higher genetic predisposition.
	Acokanthera Acokanthera is a genus of flowering plant in the family Apocynaceae.
	Aconcagua The Cerro Aconcagua is located in Argentina and is the Extremes of Altitude mountain in The Americas and the Southern Hemisphere, as well as the Extremes of Altitude outside of Asia and one of the Seven Summits. This member of the Andes is bounded by the Valle de las Vacas to the north and east and the Valle de los Horcones Inferior to the West and South.
	Aconitum Aconitum is a genus of flowering plant belonging to the buttercup family . There are over 250 species of Aconitum, which are known as aconite, monkshood, or wolfsbane.
	Acoraceae Acoraceae is the botanical name for a family of flowering plants. Such a family has been recognized by relatively few taxonomists: it is sometimes called the "sweet-flag family". The APG II system, of 2003, does recognize this family, and gives it its own order Acorales, in the clade monocots.
	Acorn The acorn is the fruit of the oak tree. It is a nut, containing a single seed, enclosed in a tough, leathery shell, and borne in a cup-shaped cupule. Acorns vary from 1-6 cm long and 0.8-4 cm broad. Acorns take about 6 or 24 months to mature; see List of Quercus species for details of oak classification, in which acorn morphology and phenology are important factors.
	Acorn squash Acorn squash is a winter Squash with distinctive longitudinal ridges and sweet, yellow-orange flesh. The most common variety is usually dark green in color. However, newer varieties have arisen including Golden Acorn, known for its glowing yellow color, and even some that are white.
	Acorus Acorus is a genus of monocot flowering plants. This genus was once placed within the family Araceae, but more recent phylogeny place it in its own family Acoraceae and order Acorales, of which it is the sole genus of the oldest surviving line of monocots.