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a rhymed pair of iambic pentameter lines: Let Observation with extensive View Survey Mankind, from China to Peru (Johnson) Named from its use by Dryden and others in the heroic drama of the late 17...

Unrhymed Japanese poetic form. It consists of 17 syllables arranged in three lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables, respectively. The form expresses much and suggests more in the fewest possible words. It...

the Greek word for error or failure, used by Aristotle in his Poetics (4th century BCE) to designate the false step that leads the protagonist in a tragedy to his or her downfall. The term has ofte...

a figure of speech described in traditional rhetoric as the expression of a single idea by means of two nouns joined by the conjunction 'and' (e.g. house and home or law and order), rather than by ...

Though native to South America, the majority of cassava now comes from Africa, where it's an important staple. Also called manioc and yuca, the cassava is a root that ranges from 6 to 12 inches in ...

A person who acts independently or remains neutral, especially in politics.often Mugwump A Republican who bolted the party in 1884, refusing to support presidential candidate James G. Blaine. (&cop...

Widely known as sea bream, there are many different varieties of this fish family in the United States and around the world. The most popular United States porgy is the scup, which is found in Atla...

Nopales are a vegetable made from the young stem segments of prickly pear, carefully peeled to remove the spines. They are particularly common in their native Mexico. Farmed nopales are most often ...

Thick-shelled edible clam of the U.S. The northern quahog (Mercenaria mercenaria), also known as the cherrystone, littleneck, or hard-shell clam, is 3 – 5 in. (8 – 13 cm) long. The ding...

Any of several North American freshwater fishes of the genus Coregonus or Leucichthys, related to and resembling the whitefish. (© Houghton Mifflin Company)