Afrikaner Afrikaners are a heterogeneous group of descendants of European settlers, arriving in modern day South Africa on and after 6 April 1652. Their mother tongue is Afrikaans, their predominant religion is Protestant Christianity, particularly Afrikaner Calvinism, and they identify with the Afrikaner culture.
	Afro An afro, sometimes called a "natural" or shortened to "fro", is a hairstyle in which the hair extends out from the head like a halo or cloud. This may or may not include wearing such afros long, to several times the diameter of the head. An afro requires curly hair and often, but not always, Afro textured hair, which typically people of indigenous African descent naturally have.
	Aft Aft, in navy terminology, is an adverb meaning 'towards the stern of the ship', when the frame of reference is within the ship. Example: "Able Seaman Smith; lay aft!". Or; "What's happening aft?" Its antonym is forward, pronounced "forrard". * The corresponding adjective, in distinguishing one feature of the vessel from another is after.
	Afterimage An afterimage is an optical illusion that occurs after looking away from a direct gaze at an image. This is closely related to the phenomenon called the persistence of vision, which is used in animation and film. One of the most common afterimages is the bright glow that seems to float before one's eyes after staring at a light bulb or a headlight for a few seconds.
	Again and Again "Again and Again" is the lead single taken from Jewel (singer) sixth studio album, Goodbye Alice In Wonderland. Promotional singles of the song were sent out in late February 2006 (US), however the single didn't start to gain airplay till about mid April of 2006. "Again and Again" is most likely viewed as a double A-side release to the song, "Goodbye Alice in Wonderland (song)", which was the very first (unofficial) single lifted from the self-titled album.
	Agal The agal is a cord that is fastened around the Keffiyeh to hold it in place. The agal is usually black in colour. See also * Thobe * Keffiyeh * Ghutra * Bisht
	Agamemnon Agammnon , one of the two best-known Atrides, is one of the most distinguished heroes of Greek mythology, was the son of King Atreus of Mycenae and Queen Aerope, and brother of Menelaus.
	Agamidae Agamids or lizards of the family Agamidae include more than 300 species in Africa, Asia, Australia, and a few in Southern Europe. phylogenetics they may be sister to the Iguanidae, characterized by predominantly acrodont dentition. Agamids usually have well-developed, strong legs.
	Agapanthus Agapanthus is a genus of between six and ten species of herbaceous perennial plants native to South Africa. They are treated either in the family Alliaceae, or separated into their own monogeneric family Agapanthaceae. Members of the genus have funnel-shaped flowers, which show diverse bluish colours.
	Agapanthus africanus Agapanthus africanus is a member of the family Alliaceae and a native of the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. It has a short stem bearing a tuft of long, narrow, arching leaves 10-35 cm long and 1-2 cm broad, and a central flower stalk 25-60 cm tall, ending in an umbel of 20-30 bright blue, funnel-shaped flowers, each flower 2.5-5 cm diameter.
	Agaric An agaric is a type of fungal fruiting body characterized by the presence of a pileus that is clearly differentiated from the stipe, with lamellae on the underside of the pileus. "Agaric" can also refer to a basidiomycete species characterized by an agaric-type fruitng body.
	Agaricaceae The Agaricaceae is a family of basidiomycete fungi and includes organisms previously known as Tulostomataceae and Lepiotaceae. Genera Leucoagaricus and Leucocoprinus are varieties of fungus cultivated by ants in ant-fungus mutualism. Category:Basidiomycetes
	Agaricales Members of the order Agaricales are some of the most familiar types of mushrooms. They are also known as gilled mushrooms, or euagarics. The Order has about 4,000 species, or one fourth of all known homobasidiomycetes. They range from the deadly Amanita virosa to the common button mushroom, from the Psychedelics, Dissociatives and Deliriantsic Amanita muscaria to the bioluminescence Jack O'Lantern mushroom.
	Agaricus Agaricus is a large and important genus of mushrooms containing both edible and poisonous species, some of which may be difficult to distinguish. The genus includes the button mushroom, and the Field mushroom the dominant cultivated mushrooms of the West. Members of Agaricus are characterized by having a fleshy cap or pileus, from the underside of which grow a number of radiating plates or gills on which are produced the naked spores.
	Agastache Agastache, or Giant Hyssop, is a genus of 912 species of perennial plant herbs in the family Lamiaceae, native to eastern Asia and North America. Most species are very upright, 0.53 m tall, with stiff, angular stems clothed in toothed-edged, lance shaped leaves ranging from 115 cm long and 0.511 cm broad depending on the species.
	Agate Agate is a term applied not to a distinct mineral species, but to an aggregate of various forms of silicon dioxide, chiefly chalcedony. According to Theophrastus, the agate was named from the river Achates, now the Drillo , in Sicily, where the stone was first found.
	Agatha Christie Agatha Mary Clarissa, Lady Mallowan, Order of the British Empire , also known as Dame Agatha Christie, was an England crime fiction writer. She also wrote romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but is remembered for her 80 mystery novels, particularly featuring detectives Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple, which have given her the title the 'Queen of Crime' and made her one of the most important and innovative writers in the development of the mystery novel.
	Agathis The genus Agathis, commonly known as kauri or dammar, forms a relatively small group of 21 species of evergreen trees in the family Araucariaceae, characteristically with very large trunks and little or no branching for some way up. Young trees are normally conical in shape, only upon maturity does the crown become more rounded or irregularly shaped.
	Agathis australis Agathis australis is a Pinophyta tree native to the northern districts of the North Island of New Zealand and is the biggest but not tallest species of tree in the country, with trunk diameters that rival Sequoiadendron. They attain heights of 40 - 50 metres and have smooth bark and small oval leaves.
	Agathis robusta Agathis robusta, the Queensland Kauri or Smooth-barked Kauri, is a Pinophyta tree native to eastern Queensland, Australia, occurring in two localities, a southern population on Fraser Island and around Maryborough, Queensland, and a northern population on the Atherton Tableland west of Cairns, Queensland.
	Agavaceae Agavaceae is a family of plants that includes many well-known desert and dry zone types such as the agave, yucca, and Joshua tree. The family includes about 550-600 species in around 18 genera, and is widespread in the tropical, subtropical and warm temperate regions of the world.
	Agave Agaves are succulent plant plants of a large botanical genus of the same name, belonging to the family Agavaceae. Chiefly Mexico, they occur also in the southern and western United States and in central and tropical South America. The plants have a large rosette of thick fleshy leaves generally ending in a sharp point and with a spiny margin; the stout stem is usually short, the leaves apparently springing from the root.
	Age of consent While the phrase age of consent typically does not appear in legal statutes , when used with reference to criminal law the age of consent is the minimum age at which a person is considered to be capable of legally giving informed consent to any contract or behaviour regulated by law with another person.
	Ageing Ageing or aging is the process of becoming older. This traditional definition was recently challenged in the new "Handbook of the Biology of Aging", where ageing was specifically defined as the process of system's deterioration with time, thus allowing for existence of non-ageing systems, and anti-ageing interventions.
	Ageless Ageless is an adjective describing something or someone whose age cannot be defined or is technically nonexistent. Agelessness can be attributed to people whose physical characteristics do not match their biological age. Some use cosmetics to attempt to diminish the effects of age. This use sometimes creates conflicting age indicators, making age determination difficult.
	Agent Orange Agent Orange was the nickname given to a powerful herbicide and defoliant used by the United States armed forces in its Herbicidal Warfare program during the Vietnam War. Agent Orange was used from 1961 to 1971, and was by far the most used of the so-called "rainbow herbicides" used during the program.
	Agent Provocateur Agent Provocateur is a concept album, the sixth released by United States/United Kingdom rock and roll music band Foreigner, released in 1984. The album deals with a spy who sees life through both the inside and the outside. Although album sales were lower than their previous work, the album contains the band's biggest hit single, the album's love theme, "I Want to Know What Love Is".
	Agglomerate Agglomerates are accumulations of large blocks of volcano material often found around vents. they are defined as rocks containing at least 75% volcanic bomb. They typically consist of blocks of various igneous rock, often mixed with material of rudimentary origin and embedded in a finer-grained matrix.
	Aggression In psychology, aggression encompasses many different types of social behavior, some of which are not clearly related to each other. Consequently, aggression has been a difficult term to provide one concise definition for. Moyer presented an early, and highly influential, classification of seven different forms of aggression, from a biological and evolutionary point of view.
	Agitator Agitator is a term for a person that actively supports some ideology or movement with speeches and especially actions. Over the centuries, the term agitator has had various meanings. In ancient world it referred to a charioteer.
	Agitprop Agitprop is a contraction of agitational propaganda. The term originated in Communist Russia, where the term was a shortened form of ????? ???????? ? ??????????, i.e., Department for Agitation and Propaganda, which was part of the Central and regional committees of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
	Agkistrodon Agkistrodon is a genus of venom snakes commonly known as moccasins. They are found in the United States, Mexico and Central America. The name Agkistrodon is derived from the Greek language word ancistron, meaning fishing hook).
	Agkistrodon contortrix Agkistrodon contortrix is a Crotalinae species commonly known as the copperhead. It is native to North America.
	Agkistrodon piscivorus Agkistrodon piscivorus is a Crotalinae species found in the United States. Commonly called cottonmouth or water moccasin, it is a close relative of the copperhead. There are three recognized subspecies of cottonmouths.
	Aglaonema Aglaonema is a genus of about 20 species of flowering plants in the family Araceae, native to the tropical swamps and rainforests of southeastern Asia from Bangladesh east to the Philippines and north to southern China. No common name is widely used, though they are sometimes called "Chinese evergreen".
	Aglet Aglets is also a paradigm for building java programming language-based mobile agents An aglet or aiglet is the little plastic or metal cladding on the end of shoelaces that keeps the twine from unraveling. The word "aglet" comes from Old French "aguillette", which is the diminutive of "aguille", meaning "needle".
	Agnatha Agnatha is a paraphyletic scientific classification of jawless fish in the phylum Chordata, subphylum Vertebrata. There are two extant groups of jawless fish, the lampreys and the hagfish, with about 60 species between them. In addition to the absence of jaws, Agnatha are characterised by absence of paired fins; the presence of a notochord both in larvae and adults; and seven or more paired gill pouches.
	Agnes de Mille Agnes George de Mille was an United States dancer and choreographer. She was born in Harlem into a well-connected family of theater professionals. Agnes originally wanted to be an actress and always had a love for acting, but she was told that she was 'not pretty enough'.
	Agnus Dei Agnus Dei is a Latin language term meaning Lamb of God, and was originally used to refer to Jesus Christ in his role of the perfect sacrificial lamb that atones for the sins of man in Christian theology, harkening back to ancient Jewish Temple sacrifices.
	AGON AGON is a series of episodic adventure games for Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows by Private Moon Studios. The game uses QuickTime VR-like panoramas in a first person camera mode. The game takes place starting in 1903.
	Agonist An agonist is a molecule that selectively binds to a specific receptor and triggers a response in the cell. It mimicks the action of an endogenous biochemical molecule that binds to the same receptor. It is a drug molecule that reproduces the action of an endogenous natural biochemical.
	Agra Agra , is an ancient city on the banks of Yamuna in India, within the States and territories of India of Uttar Pradesh. It achieved prominence as the capital of the Mughal sovereigns from 1526 to 1658 and remains a major tourist destination because of its many splendid Mughal-era buildings, most notably the Taj Mahal, Agra Fort and Fatehpur Sikri, all three of which are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
	Agriculture Farming redirects here. For Farming in computer games, see Farmer . Agriculture is the process of producing food, fodder, fiber and other goods by the systematic raising of plants and animals. Agri is from Latin ager , and culture is from Latin cultura, meaning "cultivation" in the strict sense of tillage of the soil.
	Agrigento Agrigento is the name of a town on the southern coast of Sicily, Italy, capital of the province of Agrigento. It is located at on a hill overlooking the sea. The city is renowned as the site of the ancient Greek city of Akagras , one of the leading cities of Magna Graecia.
	Agrimony Agrimony is a genus of 12-15 species of perennial plant herbaceous flowering plants in the family Rosaceae, native to the temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere, with one species also in Africa. The species grow to between 0.5-2 m tall, with pinnate leaf, and yellow flowers borne on a single spike.
	Agrippina the elder Agrippina , most commonly known as Agrippina Major or Agrippina "the Elder", was one of the most prominent women in the Roman Empire in the early 1st century AD. She was the daughter of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa by his third wife Julia the Elder, was grand-daughter of Augustus Caesar, wife of Germanicus, and the mother of Agrippina the younger and Caligula.
	Agrippina the Younger Julia Agrippina , most commonly known as Agrippina Minor or Agrippina the Younger , was the daughter of Germanicus and Agrippina the Elder. She was sister of Caligula, great granddaughter of Augustus, granddaughter of Julia the Elder and Marcus Agrippa, great-niece of Tiberius, niece and wife of Claudius, and the mother of Nero.
	Agrobacterium Agrobacterium is a genus of bacterium that causes tumors in plants. Agrobacterium tumefaciens is the most commonly studied species in this genus. Agrobacterium is well known for its ability to transfer DNA between itself and plants, and for this reason it has become an important tool for plant improvement by genetic engineering.
	Agrobacterium tumefaciens Agrobacterium tumefaciens is a species of bacterium that causes tumors in dicots. This Gram-negative bacterium causes crown gall by inserting a small segment of DNA into the plant cell, which is incorporated at a semi-random location into the plant genome.
	Agropyron Agropyron is a genus of grasses. Species in the genus are commonly referred to as crested-wheat grasses. In North America, species were introduced. Species and subspecies *Agropyron badamense Drobov *Agropyron brownei Tsvelev *Agropyron bulbosum Boiss.
	Agrostemma Agrostemma is a genus in the Caryophyllaceae family. Its most known member is Agrostemma githago, which is native of Europe, but nowadays found as a weed worldwide. Agrostemma gracile is only found in central Greece, near the city of Farsala.
	Agrostis Agrostis is a genus of over 100 species belonging to the grass family Poaceae. ;Selected species * Agrostis canina * Agrostis capillaris - also called browntop * Agrostis clavata * Agrostis curtisii * Agrostis gigantea - also called the redtop or redtop grass
	Ahimsa Ahimsa is a religion concept which advocates non-violence and a respect for all life. Ahimsa is Sanskrit for avoidance of himsa, or injury. It is most often interpreted as meaning peace and reverence toward all sentient beings. Ahimsa is an important doctrine of Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism.
	AIDS Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome or Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome is a syndrome in humans resulting from the specific damage to the immune system caused by the HIV. The late stage of the condition leaves individuals prone to opportunistic infections and tumors.
	Aikido Aikido is a modern Japanese budo. It was developed by Morihei Ueshiba over the period of the 1920s to the 1960s. Ueshiba is also known by practitioners of aikido as O-Sensei or "Great Teacher". Aikido contains a very significant spiritual component which is the result of O-Sensei's interaction with the Oomoto-kyo religion, as well as Shinto and Buddhism.
	Ailanthus Ailanthus is a genus of trees belonging to the family Simaroubaceae, in the order Sapindales . The genus is native from east Asia south to northern Australasia. They are fast-growing deciduous and evergreen trees growing to 25-45 m tall, with spreading branches and large pinnate leaves with 15-41 long pointed leaflets, the terminal leaflet normally present, and the basal pairs of leaflets often lobed at their bases.
	Aileron Ailerons are hinged control surfaces attached to the trailing edge of the wing of a fixed-wing aircraft. They are used to control the aircraft in Flight dynamics. The two ailerons are interconnected so that one goes down when the other goes up: the downgoing aileron increases the lift on its wing while the upgoing aileron reduces the lift on the other wing, producing a rolling moment about the aircraft's longitudinal axis.
	Aimee Semple McPherson Aimee Semple McPherson, also known as "Sister Aimee" or simply "Sister," was an evangelist and media sensation in the 1920s and 1930s; she was also the founder of the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel.
	Ain Ain is a dpartement in France named after the Ain River on the eastern edge of France bordering Switzerland.
	Aioli Aioli is a cold sauce made of garlic, Egg , acid , and olive oil, basically a garlic-flavoured mayonnaise. In France Aioli is traditionally served with seafood, fish soup and croutons.
	Air Combat Command The Air Combat Command is a major command of the United States Air Force whose mission is to provide air combat forces, to other commands, including both commands within the Air Force as well as the United States' Unified Combatant Commands that include elements from different branches of the armed forces.
	Air conditioning [Image:Single-room AC unit-internal.jpg|thumb|right|The internal section of the same unit. The front panel swings down to reveal the controls.]] An air conditioner is an appliance, system, or mechanism designed to extract heat from an area using a refrigeration cycle. In construction, a complete system of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning is referred to as HVAC.
	Air filter An air filter is a device which removes contaminants, often solid particulates such as dust, pollen, mold, and bacterium from air. They are often used in internal combustion engines, gas compressors, diving air compressors, ventilation systems and any other application where air quality is important.
	Air Force Space Command |- | |} Air Force Space Command is a major command of the United States Air Force with headquarters at Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado, USA. It was created on September 1, 1982. AFSPC defends the United States through its satellite and intercontinental ballistic missile operations, vital force elements in projecting global reach and global power.
	Air gun An air gun is a pneumatic gun which fires projectiles using compressed air or other high pressure gas as a propellant.
	Air Marshal Air Marshal is a rank in the Royal Air Force. It exists in a number of air forces, ranking above Air Vice-Marshal and immediately below Air Chief Marshal. Officers in the ranks of Air Chief Marshal and Air Vice-Marshal are sometimes also addressed generically as "Air Marshal".
	Air mattress For sleeping An air mattress is an inflatable mattress, usually made of plastic or textile-reinforced plastic or rubber. The deflated mattress can be rolled up or folded and carried or stored relatively easily, making air mattresses a popular choice for camping trips and for temporary bedding at home for guests.
	Air Medal The Air Medal is a Awards and decorations of the United States military of the United States which was established by Executive Order 9158, signed by Franklin Delano Roosevelt, on May 11, 1942. The Air Medal is retroactive to September 8, 1939.
	Air Miles The Air Miles Reward Program is a loyalty program or frequent flyer program in Canada, the UK, Spain, the Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar through which points are earned on money spent at participating merchants. Air Miles Reward Programs in each country are independently run, but use the same logo and trademark.
	Air National Guard The Air National Guard is part of the United States National Guard and a Reserve Component of the Armed Forces of the United States of the United States Air Force. Like the Army National Guard, the ANG is administered by the National Guard Bureau and an ANG unit may be activated by both the President of the United States and the Governor#United States of the state in which it resides.