Skip this Advertisement

A-Z Browse

  • UTC (American corporation)
    American multi-industry company with significant business concentrations in aerospace products and services, including jet engines and helicopters. Formed in 1934 as United Aircraft Corporation, it adopted its present name in 1975. Headquarters are in Hartford, Connecticut....
  • Ute (people)
    Numic-speaking group of North American Indians originally living in what is now western Colorado and eastern Utah; the latter state is named after them. When the Spanish Father Silvestre Vélez de Escalante traversed their territory in 1776 while seeking a route from Santa Fe (now in New Mexico) to the California missions, the Ute had no horses and lived in small family clusters. At that tim...
  • Ute (Colorado, United States)
    city, seat (1883) of Mesa county, western Colorado, U.S. It lies in the Grand Valley (elevation 4,586 feet [1,398 metres]), at the confluence of the Colorado and Gunnison rivers. Settled by ranchers in 1881 after the expulsion of the Ute Indians, it was first called Ute, then West Denver, and was finally named for the junction of the rivers. It developed as th...
  • Ute Peak (mountain, New Mexico, United States)
    ...feet (3,000 m) above sea level, culminating in Mount Wheeler (13,161 feet [4,011 m]), the highest point in New Mexico. Western Taos county is a plateau region with isolated mountains, including Ute Peak (10,093 feet [3,076 m]). The Rio Grande flows through the Picuris Range in a deep gorge, curving from north to southwest. Carson National Forest, including the Latir Peak and Wheeler Peak......
  • Utelle (France)
    ...département and extending into southern Var département. The population is predominantly urban. Traditional inland towns in Alpes-Maritimes include Gourdon, Èze, Utelle, and Peille; many such towns are perched on cliffs. Their streets are narrow and paved with flagstones or cobbles; houses are built of stone and roofed with rounded tiles. The doors of larger.....
  • uterine bleeding (pathology)
    abnormal bleeding from the uterus, which is not related to menstruation. Menstruation is the normal cyclic bleeding that occurs when the egg has been released from the ovary and fertilization has not occurred. Other episodes of bleeding that cannot be considered part of the normal cycle are called dysfunctional uterine bleeding. This occurs most often in wome...
  • uterine cancer (pathology)
    a disease characterized by the abnormal growth of cells in the uterus. Cancers affecting the lining of the uterus (endometrium) are the most common cancers of the female reproductive tract. Other uterine cancers, called uterine sarcomas, develop from underlying muscle or connective tissue; they are much rarer. This article focuses on the development, diagnosis, and treatment of ...
  • uterine cervix (anatomy)
    lowest region of the uterus; it attaches the uterus to the vagina and provides a passage between the vaginal cavity and the uterine cavity. The cervix, only about 4 centimetres (1.6 inches) long, projects about 2 centimetres into the upper vaginal cavity. The cervical opening into the vagina is called the external os; the cavity running the length of the cerv...
  • uterine contractions (childbirth)
    Early in labour, uterine contractions, or labour pains, occur at intervals of 20 to 30 minutes and last about 40 seconds. They are then accompanied by slight pain, which usually is felt in the small of the back....
  • uterine fibroid (tumour)
    Uterine fibroids (also called uterine leiomyomata), which occur in one in every four or five American women, are benign tumours that originate from the smooth muscle cells within the muscular wall of the uterus. Fibroids can cause excessive uterine bleeding and pain, as well as a sensation of pressure in the uterus, and may contribute to infertility by interfering with egg implantation or by......
  • uterine involution
    the period of adjustment after childbirth during which the mother’s reproductive system returns to its normal prepregnant state. It generally lasts six to eight weeks and ends with the first ovulation and the return of normal menstruation....
  • uterine leiomyomata (tumour)
    Uterine fibroids (also called uterine leiomyomata), which occur in one in every four or five American women, are benign tumours that originate from the smooth muscle cells within the muscular wall of the uterus. Fibroids can cause excessive uterine bleeding and pain, as well as a sensation of pressure in the uterus, and may contribute to infertility by interfering with egg implantation or by......
  • uterine prolapse (pathology)
    Uterine prolapse, or a sliding of the uterus from its normal position in the pelvic cavity, may result from injuries to the pelvic supporting ligaments and muscles that occur during labour. Usually the diagnosis is made months or even years later, when the patient complains of something protruding from the vagina, involuntary loss of urine while coughing or laughing, a sensation of heaviness or......
  • uterine sarcoma (pathology)
    ...by the abnormal growth of cells in the uterus. Cancers affecting the lining of the uterus (endometrium) are the most common cancers of the female reproductive tract. Other uterine cancers, called uterine sarcomas, develop from underlying muscle or connective tissue; they are much rarer. This article focuses on the development, diagnosis, and treatment of endometrial cancer....
  • uterine tube (anatomy)
    either of a pair of long narrow ducts located in the human female abdominal cavity that transport the male sperm cells to the egg, provide a suitable environment for fertilization, and transport the egg from the ovary, where it is produced, to the central channel (lumen) of the uterus....
  • uterine tube, ampulla of (anatomy)
    ...over the ovary; they contract close to the ovary’s surface during ovulation in order to guide the free egg. Leading from the infundibulum is the long central portion of the fallopian tube called the ampulla. The isthmus is a small region, only about 2 cm (0.8 inch) long, that connects the ampulla and infundibulum to the uterus. The final region of the fallopian tube, known as the intramu...
  • uterus (anatomy)
    an inverted pear-shaped muscular organ of the female reproductive system, located between the bladder and rectum. It functions to nourish and house the fertilized egg until the unborn child, or offspring, is ready to be delivered....
  • Utgard (Germanic mythology)
    in Norse mythology, the world tree, a giant ash supporting the universe. One of its roots extended into Niflheim, the underworld; another into Jötunheim, land of the giants; and the third into Asgard, home of the gods. At its base were three wells: Urdarbrunnr (Well of Fate), from which the tree was watered by the Norns (the Fates); Hvergelmir (Roaring Kettle), in which dwelt Nidhogg, the.....
  • Uthagamandalam (India)
    town, western Tamil Nadu state, southern India. It is situated in the Nilgiri Hills at about 7,500 feet (2,300 metres) above sea level, sheltered by several peaks, including Doda Betta (8,652 feet [2,637 metres]), the highest point in Tamil Nadu. Founded by the British in 1821, it was used as the official government summer headquarters for the Madras Presidency until Indian inde...
  • Uther Pendragon (legendary king of Britain)
    ...on their shields and carved dragons’ heads on the prows of their ships. In England before the Norman Conquest, the dragon was chief among the royal ensigns in war, having been instituted as such by Uther Pendragon, father of King Arthur. In the 20th century the dragon was officially incorporated in the armorial bearings of the prince of Wales....
  • ʿUthmān (Ḥafṣid ruler)
    ...who managed to pacify the country, though Ḥafṣid pirate activity continued to threaten international relations. Ḥafṣid power retained its vigour under ʿUthmān (1435–88), despite a rebellion (1435–52), but, after his reign, dynastic struggles heralded the decline of Ḥafṣid power. The country fell into Arab......
  • ʿUthmān (Ottoman sultan)
    ruler of a Turkmen principality in northwestern Anatolia who is regarded as the founder of the Ottoman Turkish state. Both the name of the dynasty and the empire that the dynasty established are derived from the Arabic form (ʿUthmān) of his name....
  • ʿUthmān Bey al-Bardīsī (Mamlūk leader)
    ...with the French, died shortly before their capitulation in 1801; and Ibrāhīm Bey, who returned to Egypt with the Ottomans, had henceforward little power. The new Mamlūk leaders, ʿUthmān Bey al-Bardīsī (died 1806) and Muḥammad Bey al-Alfī (died 1807), former retainers of Murād, headed rival factions and had in any case to reck...
  • Uthman dan Fodio (Fulani leader)
    Fulani mystic, philosopher, and revolutionary reformer who, in a jihad (holy war) between 1804 and 1808, created a new Muslim state, the Fulani empire, in what is now northern Nigeria....
  • ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān (Muslim caliph)
    third caliph to rule after the death of the Prophet. He centralized the administration of the caliphate and established an official version of the Qurʾān. ʿUthmān is critically important in Islāmic history because his death marked the beginning of open religious and political conflicts within the Islāmic community (...
  • ʿUthmān ibn Fūdī (Fulani leader)
    Fulani mystic, philosopher, and revolutionary reformer who, in a jihad (holy war) between 1804 and 1808, created a new Muslim state, the Fulani empire, in what is now northern Nigeria....
  • ʿUthmān ibn Muʿammar (Arab ruler)
    The ruler of ʿUyaynah, ʿUthmān ibn Muʿammar, gladly welcomed the returning prodigal and even adhered to his doctrines. But many opposed him, and ʿAbd al-Wahhāb’s preaching was put to a number of severe tests. The chief of the Al-Hasa region, who was of the influential Banū Khālid tribe, threatened to withhold gifts to ʿUthm...
  • uti possidetis (Roman law)
    ...existing countries, it is presumed that the frontiers of the new states will conform to the boundaries of prior internal administrative divisions. This doctrine, known as uti possidetis (Latin: “as you possess”), was established to ensure the stability of newly independent states whose colonial boundaries were often drawn arbitrarily....
  • Utica (Tunisia)
    traditionally the oldest Phoenician settlement on the coast of North Africa. It is located near the mouth of the Majardah (French Medjerda, ancient Bagradas) River 20 miles (32 km) northeast of Tunis in modern Tunisia. After its founding in the 8th or 7th century bc, Utica grew rapidly and was second only to Carthage among Phoenician settlements in Africa. In the Third Punic War (149...
  • Utica (New York, United States)
    city, seat (1798) of Oneida county, central New York, U.S., on the Mohawk River and New York State Canal System, 45 miles (72 km) east of Syracuse. The first settlers were Dutch and Palatinate Germans, and in 1758 the British built Old Fort Schuyler, near the site of an ancient Oneida ...
  • Utiguri (ancient people)
    ...veterans. Worried by Roman naval action on the Danube, which seemed to menace the escape route home, the Kutrigurs broke off the attack, returned north, and found themselves under attack from the Utigurs, a people whose support Justinian’s agents had earlier connived at and won by suitable bribes. The two peoples weakened each other in warfare, of which the episode of 559 was not the fir...
  • utile (economics)
    ...z, . . . , that are at issue. Thus for any item x, a real-number quantity is obtained, symbolized # ( x). (Such a measure is called a utility measure, the units are called utiles, and the comparisons or computations involved constitute a preference calculus.) In terms of such a measure, a preference ordering is readily introduced by the definitions that (1) x....
  • utilidor (engineering)
    ...conditions; houses and other buildings are usually placed on wooden piles that are sunk and frozen into the permafrost for stability. One of the distinctive features of the town of Inuvik is a utilidor, a linear boxlike metal container raised slightly above the surface of the ground, in which the separate sewer, water, and heating pipes are placed. Mackenzie River water-transport routes......
  • Utilitarian Society (British organization)
    ...who was also a psychologist, and Claude-Adrien Helvétius, who was noted for his emphasis on physical sensations. Soon after, in 1822–23, Mill established among a few friends the Utilitarian Society, taking the word, as he tells us, from Annals of the Parish, a novel of Scottish country life by John Galt....
  • Utilitarianism (philosophy)
    in normative ethics, a tradition stemming from the late 18th- and 19th-century English philosophers and economists Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill that an action is right if it tends to promote happiness and wrong if it tends to produce the reverse of happiness—not just the happiness of the performer of the acti...
  • Utilitarianism (work by Mill)
    ...It has been remarked how Mill combined enthusiasm for democratic government with pessimism as to what democracy was likely to do; practically every discussion in these books exemplifies this. His Utilitarianism (in Fraser’s Magazine, 1861; separate publication, 1863) was a closely reasoned attempt to answer objections to his ethical theory and to remove misconceptions about...
  • utilitas (architecture)
    The notion that a building is defective unless the spaces provided are adequate and appropriate for their intended usage would seem obvious. Yet the statement itself has been a source of controversy since the 1960s. The main reasons for the controversy are: first, whereas there are seldom exact statistical means of computing spatial adequacy or appropriateness, there are many building types or......
  • utilities
    enterprise that provides certain classes of services to the public, including common carrier transportation (buses, airlines, railroads, motor freight carriers, pipelines, etc.); telephone and telegraph; power, heat, and light; and community facilities for water, sanitation, and similar services. In most countries such enterprises are state-owned and state-operated, but in the United States they a...
  • utility (economics)
    in economics, the determination of the prices of goods and services....
  • Utility Analysis and the Consumption Function (work by Brumberg and Modigliani)
    Within the rational optimization framework, there are two main approaches. The “life-cycle” model, first articulated in Utility Analysis and the Consumption Function (1954) by economists Franco Modigliani and Richard Brumberg, proposes that households’ spending decisions are driven by household members’ assessments of expenditure needs and in...
  • utility bicycle (vehicle)
    Most present-day bicycles fit into six main categories: utility, touring, racing, mountain, hybrid, and BMX. Utility bicycles are basic transportation in developing countries, where hundreds of millions are in service. In the developed world, utility bicycles are used by children or by adults for short trips. They have heavy frames, flat handlebars, wide tires and seats, simple brakes, and......
  • utility function (logic)
    Each household is endowed with definite “tastes” that can be expressed in a series of “utility functions.” A utility function (an equation similar to the production function) shows that the pleasure or satisfaction households derive from consumption will depend on the products they purchase and on how they consume these products. Utility functions provide a general......
  • utility measure (logic)
    Each household is endowed with definite “tastes” that can be expressed in a series of “utility functions.” A utility function (an equation similar to the production function) shows that the pleasure or satisfaction households derive from consumption will depend on the products they purchase and on how they consume these products. Utility functions provide a general......
  • utility music (music)
    music intended, by virtue of its simplicity of technique and style, primarily for performance by the talented amateur rather than the virtuoso. Gebrauchsmusik is, in fact, a modern reaction against the intellectual and technical complexities of much 19th- and 20th-century music, complexities that exalt the professional virtuoso and exclude the amateur from active participation. The purpose ...
  • utility theory (mathematics)
    In the previous example it was tacitly assumed that the players were maximizing their average profits, but in practice players may consider other factors. For example, few people would risk a sure gain of $1,000,000 for an even chance of winning either $3,000,000 or $0, even though the expected (average) gain from this bet is $1,500,000. In fact, many decisions that people make, such as buying......
  • utility value (logic)
    Each household is endowed with definite “tastes” that can be expressed in a series of “utility functions.” A utility function (an equation similar to the production function) shows that the pleasure or satisfaction households derive from consumption will depend on the products they purchase and on how they consume these products. Utility functions provide a general......
  • Utique (Tunisia)
    traditionally the oldest Phoenician settlement on the coast of North Africa. It is located near the mouth of the Majardah (French Medjerda, ancient Bagradas) River 20 miles (32 km) northeast of Tunis in modern Tunisia. After its founding in the 8th or 7th century bc, Utica grew rapidly and was second only to Carthage among Phoenician settlements in Africa. In the Third Punic War (149...
  • Utje-Šenović, Juraj (Hungarian cardinal)
    Hungarian statesman and later cardinal who worked to restore and maintain the national unity of Hungary....
  • Utkal Plains (plains, India)
    coastal plains in eastern Orissa state, eastern India. Extending over approximately 16,000 sq mi (41,400 sq km) and fronting the Bay of Bengal on the east, the plains are bounded by the Tamilnād Plain on the south, the Lower Ganges Plain on the north, and the Eastern Ghāts on the west. The Utkal Plains are coastal lowlands consisting chiefly of Mahānadi Delta deposits and mar...
  • Utkala (state, India)
    state of India. It is located in the northeastern part of the country. It is bounded by the Bay of Bengal in the east and by the states of West Bengal in the northeast, Bihar in the north, Madhya Pradesh in the west, and Andhra Pradesh in the south. Its area is 60,119 square miles (155,707 square kilometres). Before India became independent in 1947, Orissa’s capital was at Cuttack. The pres...
  • Utnapishtim (Mesopotamian mythology)
    The story of the Flood has close affinities with Babylonian traditions of apocalyptic floods in which Utnapishtim plays the part corresponding to that of Noah. These mythologies are the source of such features of the biblical Flood story as the building and provisioning of the ark, its flotation, and the subsidence of the waters, as well as the part played by the human protagonist. Tablet XI of......
  • Uto (Egyptian goddess)
    cobra goddess of ancient Egypt. Depicted as a cobra twined around a papyrus stem, she was the tutelary goddess of Lower Egypt. Wadjet and Nekhbet, the vulture-goddess of Upper Egypt, were the protective goddesses of the king and were sometimes represented together on the king’s diadem, symbolizing his reign over all of Egypt. The form...
  • Uto-Aztecan languages
    family of American Indian languages spoken in Mexico, northern Guatemala, and the western United States. The Uto-Aztecan languages are recognized by modern linguists as falling into eight groups, four of which make up the Shoshonean division and three the Sonoran division. The formerly recognized Nahuan division is now generally included in Sonoran....
  • “Utomlyonnyye solntsem” (film by Mikhalkov [1994])
    Other Nominees...
  • utopia (ideal community)
    an ideal commonwealth whose inhabitants exist under seemingly perfect conditions. Hence “utopian” and “utopianism” are words used to denote visionary reform that tends to be impossibly idealistic....
  • Utopia (work by More)
    In May 1515 More was appointed to a delegation to revise an Anglo-Flemish commercial treaty. The conference was held at Brugge, with long intervals that More used to visit other Belgian cities. He began in the Low Countries and completed after his return to London his Utopia, which was published at Louvain in December 1516. The book was an immediate success with the......
  • Utopia basin (impact basin, Mars)
    ...on 30° W longitude), Amazonis Planitia (160° W), and Utopia Planitia (250° W). The only significant relief in this huge area is a large ancient impact basin, informally called the Utopia basin (40° N, 250° W)....
  • Utopia Planitia (region, Mars)
    northern lava plain on the planet Mars that was selected as the landing site of the U.S. Viking 2 planetary probe. Photographs transmitted from the Viking 2 lander, which touched down at 47.97° N, 225.74° W, on September 3, 1976, depicted a boulder-strewn plain that superficially resembles the Viking 1 landing site in Chryse Planitia...
  • utopian literature
    ...and wit established his reputation as one of the foremost humanists. Soon translated into most European languages, Utopia became the ancestor of a new literary genre, the utopian romance....
  • Utopian Plain (region, Mars)
    northern lava plain on the planet Mars that was selected as the landing site of the U.S. Viking 2 planetary probe. Photographs transmitted from the Viking 2 lander, which touched down at 47.97° N, 225.74° W, on September 3, 1976, depicted a boulder-strewn plain that superficially resembles the Viking 1 landing site in Chryse Planitia...
  • utopian socialism (social and political philosophy)
    Conservatives who saw the settled life of agricultural society disrupted by the insistent demands of industrialism were as likely as their radical counterparts to be outraged by the self-interested competition of capitalists and the squalor of industrial cities. The radicals distinguished themselves, however, by their commitment to equality and their willingness to envision a future in which......
  • UTP (chemical compound)
    ...The reaction, catalyzed by a galactokinase, results in the formation of galactose 1-phosphate; this product is transformed to glucose 1-phosphate by a sequence of reactions requiring as a coenzyme uridine triphosphate (UTP). Fructose may also be phosphorylated in animal cells through the action of hexokinase [1], in which case fructose 6-phosphate is the product, or in liver tissue via a......
  • Utpala (Indian author)
    The source literature of this school consists in the Śiva-sūtra, Vasugupta’s Spanda-kārikā (“Verses on Creation”; 8th–9th centuries), Utpala’s Pratyabhijñā-sūtra (“Aphorisms on Recognition”; c. 900), Abhinavagupta’s Paramārthasāra (“The Es...
  • Utraquists (religious movement)
    any of the spiritual descendants of Jan Hus who believed that the laity, like the clergy, should receive the Eucharist under the forms of both bread and wine (Latin utraque, “each of two”; calix, “chalice”). Unlike the militant Taborites (also followers of Hus), the Utraquists were moderates and maintained amicable relations with the Rom...
  • Utre, Philipp von (German administrator)
    last German captain general of Venezuela....
  • Utrecht (The Netherlands)
    gemeente (municipality), central Netherlands. It lies along the Kromme Rijn (Winding, or Crooked, Rhine), Oude (Old) Rijn, and Vecht rivers and the Amsterdam–Rijn Canal. Its original Roman name, Trajectum ad Rhenum (Ford on the Rhine), later became Ultrajectum, and then Utrecht....
  • Utrecht (province, The Netherlands)
    provincie, central Netherlands, the country’s smallest, with an area of 514 square miles (1,331 square km). It extends southward from the narrow Lake Eem, which separates Utrecht provincie from the South Flevoland polder of Flevoland provincie. Utrecht provincie lies between the provincies of Noord-Holland and Zuid-Holland (west) and Gelderland (east). Its...
  • Utrecht, Peace of (European history)
    (April 1713–September 1714), a series of treaties between France and other European powers (April 11, 1713 to Sept. 7, 1714) and another series between Spain and other powers (July 13, 1713 to June 26, 1714), concluding the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–14)....
  • Utrecht Psalter (Carolingian codex)
    ...conversion of the emperor Constantine (ad 312), had little love for the musical instruments associated with earlier persecutions. Folk instruments, of course, remained, and such documents as the Utrecht Psalter (c. 830; Utrecht, Library of the State University) contain drawings showing instruments, but there is little to indicate a flourishing musical culture. The great cen...
  • Utrecht school (art)
    principally a group of three Dutch painters—Dirck van Baburen (c. 1590–1624), Gerrit van Honthorst (1590–1656; see ), and Hendrik Terbrugghen (1588–1629)—who went to Rome and fell fully under the pervasive influence of Caravaggio’s art before returning to Utrecht. Al...
  • Utrecht, State University of (university, Utrecht, The Netherlands)
    state-supported coeducational institution of higher learning founded in 1636 at Utrecht, Neth. In the 17th and 18th centuries Utrecht attracted many foreign students, especially from England and Scotland. James Boswell, Samuel Johnson’s biographer, studied law at Utrecht (1763–64)....
  • Utrecht, Treaties of (European history)
    (April 1713–September 1714), a series of treaties between France and other European powers (April 11, 1713 to Sept. 7, 1714) and another series between Spain and other powers (July 13, 1713 to June 26, 1714), concluding the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–14)....
  • Utrecht, Union of (European history)
    On Jan. 23, 1579, the agreement at Utrecht was concluded, forming a “closer union” within the larger union of the Low Countries led by the States General sitting in Brussels. Included in the Union were the provinces and cities committed to carrying on resistance to Spanish rule: Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Gelderland (Guelders), and Zutphen (a part of Overijssel) as the first......
  • Utrera (Spain)
    city, Sevilla provincia (province), in the comunidad autónoma (autonomous community) of Andalusia, southwestern Spain. It lies southeast of the city of Sevilla on the Arroyo de la Antigua, which is a tributary of the Guadalquivir River....
  • utricle (anatomy)
    Each saccule and utricle has a single cluster, or macula, of hair cells located in the vertical and horizontal planes, respectively. Resting upon the hair cells is a gelatinous membrane in which are embedded calcareous granules called otoliths. Changes in linear acceleration alter the pressure on the otoliths, causing displacement of the cilia and providing an adequate stimulus for membrane......
  • Utricula (Spain)
    city, Sevilla provincia (province), in the comunidad autónoma (autonomous community) of Andalusia, southwestern Spain. It lies southeast of the city of Sevilla on the Arroyo de la Antigua, which is a tributary of the Guadalquivir River....
  • Utricularia (plant)
    any plant of the genus Utricularia (family Lentibulariaceae of the flowering plant order Lamiales). The bladderwort genus contains 220 widely distributed species of land and water plants characterized by small hollow sacs that actively capture and digest tiny animals such as insect larvae, aquatic worms, water fleas, and other small swimmers....
  • Utrillo, Maurice (French artist)
    French painter who was noted for his depictions of the houses and streets of the Montmartre district of Paris....
  • UTS (mechanics)
    ...past yielding, the load reaches a maximum as the strain localizes and a neck develops in the sample. The maximum load, divided by the initial cross-sectional area of the sample, is called the ultimate tensile stress (UTS). The final length minus the initial length, divided by the initial length, is called the elongation. Yield stress, UTS, and elongation are the most commonly tabulated......
  • utsarpini (cosmic cycle)
    ...and formless. It is understood as a wheel with 12 spokes (ara), the equivalent of ages, six of which form an ascending arc and six a descending one. In the ascending arc (utsarpini), humans progress in knowledge, age, stature, and happiness, while in the descending arc (avasarpini) they deteriorate. The two cycles joined together make one rotation...
  • Utsubo monogatari (Japanese literature)
    The first lengthy work of fiction in Japanese, Utsubo monogatari (“The Tale of the Hollow Tree”), was apparently written between 970 and 983, although the last chapter may have been written later. This uneven, ill-digested work is of interest chiefly as an amalgam of elements in the poem tales and fairy tales; it contains 986 tanka, and its episodes range......
  • Utsunomiya (Japan)
    capital, Tochigi ken (prefecture), Honshu, Japan. The city is situated on the alluvial plain between the Ta River and the Kinu River. A castle town in the 11th century, it later served as a post town on the Nikkō Highway during the Tokugawa era (1603–1867). The city became the prefectural administrative centre in 1884. During World War II industries were rel...
  • Uttar Pradesh (state, India)
    the most populous state of India. Lying in north-central India, it is bordered by Nepal and the Indian state of Uttaranchal to the north, the Indian states of Haryāna and Rājasthān and the union territory of Delhi to the west, the state of Madhya Pradesh to the south, the state of Bihār to the east, and the states of Jharkhand and Chhatīsgaṛḥ to the...
  • Uttara-kalārya (Hindu sect)
    one of two Hindu subsects of the Śrīvaiṣṇava, the other being the Teṉkalai. Though the two groups use both Sanskrit and Tamil scriptures, the Vaḍakalai relies more on Sanskrit texts, such as the Vedas (earliest sacred scriptures of India), the Upaniṣads (early religiophilosophic texts), and the religious poem the Bhagava...
  • Uttara-Mīmāṃsā (Hindu philosophy)
    one of the six orthodox systems (darshans) of Indian philosophy and the one that forms the basis of most modern schools of Hinduism. The term Vedānta means in Sanskrit the “conclusion” (anta) of the Vedas, the earliest sacred literature of India; it applies to the Upanishads, which were elaborations of the Vedas, and to the school that arose out of th...
  • Uttaradit (Thailand)
    town, northern Thailand. It is a provincial capital and a farming market centre on the Nan River and the Bangkok–Chiang Mai railway. The town centre was rebuilt after being destroyed by a fire in 1967. The Pha Then Buddhist shrine is southwest of the town. Uttaradit is in one of Thailand’s foremost fruit-growing regions, producing rambutans, mangosteens, durians, coconuts, and other...
  • Uttarakhand (state, India)
    ...given its present name, Uttar Pradesh (literally, “Northern State”). Its capital is Lucknow. In November 2000 the state’s northern, Himalayan, provinces were formed into the new state of Uttaranchal, with its capital at Dehra Dūn; the new state has a total area of 24,385 square miles (63,157 square km)....
  • Uttaranchal (state, India)
    ...given its present name, Uttar Pradesh (literally, “Northern State”). Its capital is Lucknow. In November 2000 the state’s northern, Himalayan, provinces were formed into the new state of Uttaranchal, with its capital at Dehra Dūn; the new state has a total area of 24,385 square miles (63,157 square km)....
  • Uttararāmacarita (work by Bhavabhūti)
    ...of Rāvaṇa and the coronation of Rāma; Mālatī Mādhava, a domestic drama in 10 acts abounding in stirring, though sometimes improbable, incidents; and Uttararāmacarita (“The Later Deeds of Rāma”), which continues the story of Rāma from his coronation to the banishment of Sītā and their final r...
  • Uttlesford (district, England, United Kingdom)
    district, administrative and historic county of Essex, England. It occupies the northwestern corner of the county, where it borders Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire. A low ridge of chalk hills runs from southwest to northeast through a rolling countryside. The district is largely rural. The main town is Saffron Walden; there are also many smaller old parishes, such as Thaxted, G...
  • Utu (Mesopotamian god)
    in Mesopotamian religion, the god of the sun, who, with the moon god, Sin (Sumerian: Nanna), and Ishtar (Sumerian: Inanna), the goddess of Venus, was part of an astral triad of divinities. Shamash was the son of Sin....
  • Utu-hegal (king of Uruk)
    Utu-hegal of Uruk is given credit for having overthrown Gutian rule by vanquishing their king Tiriqan along with two generals. Utu-hegal calls himself lord of the four quarters of the earth in an inscription, but this title, adopted from Akkad, is more likely to signify political aspiration than actual rule. Utu-hegal was a brother of the Ur-Nammu who founded the 3rd dynasty of Ur......
  • Utu-khegal (king of Uruk)
    Utu-hegal of Uruk is given credit for having overthrown Gutian rule by vanquishing their king Tiriqan along with two generals. Utu-hegal calls himself lord of the four quarters of the earth in an inscription, but this title, adopted from Akkad, is more likely to signify political aspiration than actual rule. Utu-hegal was a brother of the Ur-Nammu who founded the 3rd dynasty of Ur......
  • ʿUtūb, Banī (Arab clan)
    The origin of the city of Kuwait—and of the State of Kuwait—is usually placed at about the beginning of the 18th century, when the Banū (Banī) ʿUtūb, a group of families of the ʿAnizah tribe in the interior of the Arabian Peninsula, migrated to the area that is now Kuwait. The foundation of the autonomous sheikhdom of Kuwait dates from 1756, when th...
  • ʿUtūb, Banū (Arab clan)
    The origin of the city of Kuwait—and of the State of Kuwait—is usually placed at about the beginning of the 18th century, when the Banū (Banī) ʿUtūb, a group of families of the ʿAnizah tribe in the interior of the Arabian Peninsula, migrated to the area that is now Kuwait. The foundation of the autonomous sheikhdom of Kuwait dates from 1756, when th...
  • Utuhegal (king of Uruk)
    Utu-hegal of Uruk is given credit for having overthrown Gutian rule by vanquishing their king Tiriqan along with two generals. Utu-hegal calls himself lord of the four quarters of the earth in an inscription, but this title, adopted from Akkad, is more likely to signify political aspiration than actual rule. Utu-hegal was a brother of the Ur-Nammu who founded the 3rd dynasty of Ur......
  • utui (social group)
    Traditionally the basic group among the Kamba was a unit of flexible social and territorial boundaries called an utui, based on a core patrilineage. The Kamba were grouped into some 25 dispersed patrilineal clans varying greatly in size. Individuals were organized in age grades, but these were not based on initiation as among the Kikuyu and others. Men in the eldest grade traditionally......
  • Utukhegal (king of Uruk)
    Utu-hegal of Uruk is given credit for having overthrown Gutian rule by vanquishing their king Tiriqan along with two generals. Utu-hegal calls himself lord of the four quarters of the earth in an inscription, but this title, adopted from Akkad, is more likely to signify political aspiration than actual rule. Utu-hegal was a brother of the Ur-Nammu who founded the 3rd dynasty of Ur......
  • Uturoa (settlement, French Polynesia)
    ...3,000 feet (1,000 metres). The neighbouring island to the north, Tahaa, geologically is part of the same volcanic complex, and both islands lie within the same fringing reef. The chief settlement is Uturoa, administrative seat of the Îles Sous le Vent; it is a regular port of call for ships passing between New Caledonia and Tahiti, and it has ship-service facilities and light industry......
  • “Utvandrarna” (work by Moberg)
    ...novels of peasant life but achieved his greatest success with a four-volume prose epic about a group of Swedes who immigrate to North America—Utvandrarna (1949–59; The Emigrants), Invandrarna (1952; Unto a Good Land), Nybyggarna (1956; The Settlers), and Sista brevet till......
Skip this Advertisement

Link to this article and share the full text with the readers of your Web site or blog-post.

If you think a reference to this article on "" will enhance your Web site, blog-post, or any other web-content, then feel free to link to this article, and your readers will gain full access to the full article, even if they do not subscribe to our service.

You may want to use the HTML code fragment provided below.

copy link

We welcome your comments. Any revisions or updates suggested for this article will be reviewed by our editorial staff. Contact us here.

Regular users of Britannica may notice that this comments feature is less robust than in the past. This is only temporary, while we make the transition to a dramatically new and richer site. The functionality of the system will be restored soon.

The Britannica Store
A-Z Browse

Image preview