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 Talk Talk - Communication terms
Category: General technical and industrial
Date & country: 28/05/2010, UK
Words: 18630


marmot
Any of several large burrowing rodents belonging to the squirrel family. There are about 15 species, distributed throughout Canada and the USA, and from the Alps to the Himalayas. They eat plants and some insects, and live in colonies, make burrows (one to each family), and hibernate in winter (alpine marmots hibernate for six months of the year). ...

marlin
Any of several open-sea fishes known as billfishes. Some 2.5 m/7 ft long, they are found in warmer waters and have elongated snouts and high-standing dorsal (back) fins. Members of the family include the sailfish (Istiophorus platypterus), the fastest of all fishes over...

mantis
Any of a group of carnivorous insects related to cockroaches. There are about 2,000 species of mantis, mainly tropical; some can reach a length of 20 cm/8 in. (Family Mantidae, order Dictyoptera.) Mantises are often called `praying mantises` because of the way they hold their front ...

manta
Another name for the devil ray, a large fish

mandrill
Large West African forest-living baboon, active mainly on the ground. It has large canine teeth like the drill (M. leucophaeus), to which it is closely related. The nose is bright red and the cheeks are striped with blue; the thick skin of the buttocks is also red, and the fur is brown, apart from a yellow beard. (Species...

magpie
Any of various birds belonging to the crow family. They feed on insects, snails, young birds, and carrion, and are found in Europe, Asia, North Africa, and western North America. (Genus Pica, family Corvidae, order Passeriformes.)

mammoth
Extinct elephant, remains of which have been found worldwide. Some were 50% taller than modern elephants; others were much smaller. (Genus Mammuthus (or Elephas).) The woolly mammoth (M. primigenius) of northern zones, the size of an Indian elephant, had long fur and large inward-curving tusks. Vari...

maggot
Soft, plump, limbless larva of flies, a typical example being the larva of the blowfly which is deposited as an egg on flesh

mackerel
Any of various fishes of the mackerel family, especially the common mackerel (Scomber scombrus) found in the North Atlantic and Mediterranean. It weighs about 0.7 kg/1.5 lb, and is blue with irregular black bands down its sides, the sides and under surface having a metallic she...

macaw
Any of a group of large, brilliantly coloured, long-tailed tropical American parrots, such as the blue and yellow macaw Ara ararauna. They can be recognized by the massive beak, about half the size of the head, and by the extremely long tail. (Genera Ara, Aratinga, and Anodorhync...

Maynard Smith, John
English geneticist and evolutionary biologist. He applied game theory to animal behaviour and developed the concept of the evolutionary stable strategy as a mathematical technique for studying the evolution of behaviour

macrophage
Type of white blood cell, or leucocyte, found in all vertebrate animals. Macrophages specialize in the removal of bacteria and other micro-organisms, or of cell debris after injury. Like phagocytes, they engulf foreign matter, but they are larger than phagocytes and have a longer lifespan. They are found throughout the body, but mainly in the l...

mayweed
Any of several species of the daisy family native to Europe and Asia and naturalized elsewhere, including the European dog fennel or stinking daisy (Anthemis cotula), naturalized in North America, and the pineapple mayweed (Matricaria matricarioides), found in Europe and Asia. All have finely divided leaves. (F...

marabou
African stork, about 120 cm/4 ft tall, with a bald head, long heavy bill, black back and wings and white underparts, and an inflatable throat pouch. It eats snakes, lizards, insects, and carrion. The bald head avoids blood clogging the plumage when the stork feeds on carcasses left by predators such as lions. (Species Leptoptilos crume...

manatee
Any of a group of plant-eating aquatic mammals found in marine bays and sluggish rivers, usually in thick, muddy water. They have flippers as forelimbs, no hindlimbs, and a short rounded and flattened tail used for swimming. The marine manatees can grow up to about 4.5 m/15 ft long and weigh ...

mamba
Either of two venomous snakes belonging to the cobra family, found in Africa south of the Sahara. Unlike cobras, they are not hooded. (Genus Dendroaspis, family Elapidae.) The green mamba (D. angusticeps) is 1.5 m/5 ft long or more and lives in trees, feeding on birds and lizards. The black mamba (...

mallard
Common wild duck from which domestic ducks were bred, found almost worldwide. The male can grow to a length of 60 cm/2 ft and usually has a glossy green head, white collar, and chestnut brown breast with a pale grey body, while the female is mottled brown. Mallards are omnivorous dabbling ducks. ...

macaque
Any of a group of medium-sized Old World monkeys. Various species live in forests from the Far East to North Africa. The rhesus monkey and the Barbary ape belong to this group. (Genus Macaca.) Macaques range from long-tailed to tailless types, and have well-developed cheek pouches to carry food

maroon
In the West Indies and Suriname, a freed or escaped African slave. Maroons were organized and armed by the Spanish in Jamaica in the late 17th century and early 18th century. They harried the British with guerrilla tactics. A peace treaty was signed in 1739 between the Maroons and the British, granting the Maroons land and exemption from taxes. In ...

mammary gland
In female mammals, a milk-producing gland derived from epithelial cells underlying the skin, active only after the production of young. In all but monotremes (egg-laying mammals), the mammary glands terminate in teats which aid infant suckling. The number of glands and their position vary between species. In humans there are 2, in cows 4, a...

maximum and minimum
In coordinate geometry, points at which the slope of a curve representing a function changes from positive to negative (maximum), or from negative to positive (minimum). A tangent to the curve at a maximum or minimum has zero gradient. Maxima and minima can be found by differentiating the function fo...

mathematics
Science of relationships between numbers, between spatial configurations, and abstract structures. The main divisions of pure mathematics include geometry, arithmetic, algebra, calculus, and trigonometry. Mechanics, statistics, numerical analysis, computing, the mathematical theories of astronomy, el...

matrix
(mathematics) In mathematics, a square (n × n) or rectangular (m × n) array of elements (numbers or algebraic variables) used to facilitate the study of problems in which the relation between the elements is ...

magic square
In mathematics, a square array of numbers in which the rows, columns, and diagonals add up to the same total. A simple example employing the numbers 1 to 9, with a total of 15, has a first row of 6, 7, 2, a second row of 1, 5, 9, and a third row of 8, 3, 4. A pandiagonal magic square is one in which ...

mammography
X-ray procedure used to screen for breast cancer. It can detect abnormal growths at an early stage, before they can be seen or felt. It is most effective for screening women over 35, as breast tissue is too dense in younger women

Mannheim, Karl
Hungarian sociologist who settled in the UK in 1933. In Ideology and Utopia (1929) he argued that all knowledge, except in mathematics and physics, is ideological, a reflection of class interests and values; that there is therefore no such thing as objective knowledge or absolute truth. Mannheim distinguished between ruling&#...

malachite
Common copper ore, basic copper carbonate, Cu2CO3(OH)2. It is a source of green pigment and is used as an antifungal agent in fish farming, as well as being polished for use in jewellery, ornaments, and art objects

mantle
Intermediate zone of the Earth between the crust and the core, accounting for 82% of the Earth's volume. The crust, made up of separate tectonic plates, floats on the mantle which is made of dark semi-liquid rock that is rich in magnesium and silicon. The temperature of the mantle can be ...

magma
Molten rock material that originates in the lower part of the Earth's crust, or mantle, where it reaches temperatures as high as 1,000°C/1,832°F. Igneous rocks are formed from magma. Lava is magma that has extruded onto the surface

mass production
Manufacture of goods on a large scale, a technique that aims for low unit cost and high output. In factories mass production is achieved by a variety of means, such as division and specialization of labour and mechanization. These speed up production and allow the manufacture of near-identical, interchangeable parts. Such parts can then be asse...

magneto
Simple electric generator, often used to provide the electricity for the ignition system of motorcycles and used in early cars. It consists of a rotating magnet that sets up an electric current in a coil, providing the spark

machine tool
Automatic or semi-automatic power-driven mechanized tool. Machine tools have powerful electric motors to force cutting tools into metals: these are made from hardened steel containing heat-resistant metals such as tungsten and chromium. The use of precision machine tools in mass-production assembly methods ensures that all dupli...

Malthus, Thomas Robert
English economist and social scientist. His fame rested on what was in effect a long pamphlet, An Essay on the Principle of Population, As It Affects the Future Improvement of Society (1798), in which he observed that the growth of population is ultimately limited by the food supply. He supported this common thesis with the metap...

Marley, Bob
Jamaican reggae singer and songwriter. His songs, many of which were topical and political, increased the popularity of reggae worldwide in the 1970s. They include `Get Up, Stand Up` (1973) and `No Woman No Cry` (1974); his albums include Natty Dread (1975) ...

Manx Gaelic
Gaelic language of the Isle of Man

malapropism
Amusing slip of the tongue, arising from the confusion of similar-sounding words; for example, `the pineapple [pinnacle] of politeness`. The term derives from the French mal à propos (inappropriate); historically, it is associated with Mrs Malaprop, a character in Richard Sheridan's play <...

Malayo-Polynesian
Family of languages spoken in Malaysia, better known as Austronesian

Malay language
Member of the Western or Indonesian branch of the Malayo-Polynesian language family, used in the Malay Peninsula and many of the islands of Malaysia and Indonesia. The Malay language can be written in either Arabic or Roman scripts. The dialect of the southern Malay peninsula is the basis of both Bahasa Malaysia and Bahasa Indonesia, the offici...

machine code
In computing, a set of instructions that a computer's central processing unit (CPU) can understand and obey directly, without any translation. Each type of CPU has its own machine code. Because machine-code programs consist entirely of binary digits (bits), most programmers write their programs in an easy-to-use high-level langu...

Marconi, Guglielmo
Click images to enlargeItalian electrical engineer and pioneer in the invention and development of radio. In 1895 he achieved radio communication over more than a mile, and in England in 1896 he conducted successful experiments that led to the formation of the company that became Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company L...

Mazarin, Jules
French politician who succeeded Richelieu as chief minister of France in 1642. His attack on the power of the nobility led to the Fronde and his temporary exile, but his diplomacy achieved a successful conclusion to the Thirty Years' War, and, in alliance with Oliver Cromwell during the British protectorate, he gained victory over Spain

Mayotte
Island group of the Comoros, off the east coast of Africa, a collectivité territoriale of France by its own wish; area 374 sq km/144 sq mi; population (1994 est) 109,600. The two main islands are Grande Terre and Petite Terre. The capital is Dzaoudzi. Industries include coffee, copra, vanilla, fishing, cloves, co...

mayor
Title of the head of urban (city or town) administration. In England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, the mayor is the principal officer of a district council that has been given district-borough status under royal charter. In the USA a mayor is the elected head of a city or town. In 1996 the Labour Party suggested proposals for directly-elect...

Mayo
County of the Republic of Ireland, in the province of Connacht; county town Castlebar; area 5,400 sq km/2,084 sq mi; population (2002) 117,450. Its wild Atlantic coastline is about 400 km/249 mi long. The principal towns are Ballina, Ballinrobe, and Westport, and the principal rivers are the Moy, the Robe, and the Owenmore. Loug...

May Day
First day of May. In many countries it is a national holiday in honour of labour; see also Labour Day. Traditionally the first day of summer, in parts of England it is still celebrated as a pre-Christian magical rite; for example, the dance around the maypole (an ancient fertility symbol)

Maya
Click images to enlargeMember of a prehistoric American Indian civilization originating in the Yucatán Peninsula in Central America about 2600 BC, with later sites in Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize. Their language belonged to the Totonac-Mayan family. From AD 325 to 925 (Classical Period) the Maya culture dominate...

Maupassant,
(Henry René Albert) French author. He established a reputation with the short story `Boule de suif/Ball of Fat` (1880) and wrote some 300 short stories in all. His novels include Une Vie/A Woman's Life (1883) and Bel-Ami (188...

Maximilian I
German king from 1486, Holy Roman Emperor from 1493. He was the son of the emperor Frederick III (1415–93). Through a combination of dynastic marriages and diplomacy backed up by military threats, Maximilian was able to build up the Habsburg inheritance. He married Mary of Burgundy in 1477, and ...

Mau Mau
Kenyan secret guerrilla movement 1952–60, an offshoot of the Kikuyu Central Association banned in World War II. Its aim was to end British colonial rule. This was achieved in 1960 with the granting of Kenyan independence and the election of Jomo Kenyatta as Kenya's first prime minister. A state of emergency was declared in 1952, and by 195...

Mars
(mythology) In Roman mythology, the god of war (Mars Gradivus), depicted as a fearless warrior. The month of March is named after him. He was identified with the Greek Ares, but achieved greater status. Together with Jupiter and Quirinius, a Sabine war god, he was one of the three great guardi...

marines
Fighting force that operates both on land and at sea. The US Marine Corps (1775) is constituted as an arm of the US Navy. It is made up of infantry and air support units trained and equipped for amphibious landings under fire. The United States Marine Corps is considered by many to be the epitome of ...

marijuana
Dried leaves and flowers of the hemp plant cannabis, used as a drug; it is illegal in most countries. It is eaten or inhaled and causes euphoria, distortion of time, and heightened sensations of sight and sound. Mexico is the world's largest producer

Marie de' Medici
Queen of France, wife of Henry IV from 1600, and regent (after his murder) for their son Louis XIII. She left the government to her favourites, the Concinis, until Louis XIII seized power and executed them in 1617. She was banished but, after she led a revolt in 1619, Richelieu effected her reconciliation with her son. When she attempted to oust hi...

Marie Antoinette
Click images to enlargeQueen of France from 1774. She was the fourth daughter of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria and the Holy Roman Emperor Francis I, and married Louis XVI of France in 1770. Her devotion to the interests of Austria, reputation for extravagance, and supposed connection with the scandal of the Diamond Nec...

Marcos, Ferdinand Edralin
Filipino right-wing politician, dictator-president 1965–86, when he was forced into exile in Hawaii by a popular front led by Corazon Aquino. Born in Sarrat, Marcos was convicted, while a law student in 1939, of murdering a political opponent of his father, but eventually secured his own acquittal. His claim that during World War II he...

Marble Arch
Triumphal arch in London in the style of the Arch of Constantine. It was designed by John Nash and John Flaxman (1755–1826) in 1828 to commemorate Nelson's and Wellington's victories, and was originally intended as a ceremonial entry to Buckingham Palace. In 1851, after the completion of Buckingham Palace, it was moved by Edward Blore ...

Marathon, Battle of
Battle fought in September 490 BC at the start of the Persian Wars in which the Athenians and their allies from Plataea resoundingly defeated the Persian king Darius' invasion force. Fought on the Plain of Marathon about 40 km/25 mi northeast of Athens, it is one of the most famous battles of antiquity. The Greeks, a combined force of about...

Marat, Jean Paul
Swiss-born French Revolutionary leader, physician, and journalist. He was elected to the National Convention in 1792, where, as leader of the radical Montagnard faction, he carried on a long struggle with the right-wing Girondins, which resulted in their overthrow in May 1793. In July he was murdered in his bath by Charlotte Corday, a Giron...

map
Diagrammatic representation of an area, for example part of the Earth's surface or the distribution of the stars. Modern maps of the Earth are made using satellites in low orbit to take a series of overlapping stereoscopic photographs from which a three-dimensional image can be prepared. The earliest accurate large-scale maps appeared a...

Maori
Member of the Polynesian people of New Zealand. They number 435,000, about 15% of the total population, and around 89% live in the North Island. Maori civilization had particular strengths in warfare, cultivation, navigation, and wood- and stonework. Speechmaking and oral history, as well as woodcarving, were the main cultural repositor...

mantra
In Hindu and Buddhist belief, a word or phrase repeatedly intoned during meditation to assist concentration and develop spiritual power; for example, `Om` or `Aum`, which represents the names of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. Followers of a guru may receive their own individual mantra. In Mahayana Buddhism, reciting a mantra is ...

manslaughter
In English law, the unlawful killing of a human being in circumstances less culpable than murder – for example, when the killer suffers extreme provocation, is in some way mentally ill (diminished responsibility), did not intend to kill but did so accidentally in the course of another crime or by behaving with criminal recklessness, or is the ...

Mannerism
In a general sense, any affectation (unnatural imitation or exaggeration) of a style or manner in art, though the term is usually used with reference to Italian painting in the 16th century and represents a distinct phase between the art of the High Renaissance and the rise of baroque. It was largely based on an admiration for Michelangelo and a co...

Manitoba
Province in central Canada, the easternmost of the Prairie Provinces. Bounded to the south, on the 49th parallel, by the US states of Minnesota (in the east) and North Dakota (in the west); to the west by Saskatchewan; to the north, on the 60th parallel, by the Northwest Territories and Hudso...

Mann, Heinrich
German novelist. He left Nazi Germany in 1937 with his brother Thomas Mann and went to the USA. His books include Im Schlaraffenland/In the Land of Cockaigne (1901) and Professor Unrat/The Blue Angel (1904; widely known as a film), depicting the sensual downfall of a schoolteacher. His novels show G...

Manipur
State of northeast India; bordered south and east by Myanmar; area 22,356 sq km/8,632 sq mi; population (2001 est) 2,388,600 (30% are hill tribes such as Nagas and Kukis). The capital is Imphal. The state is mostly wooded and mountainous (mainly over 2,000 m/6,500 ft), with a central valley containing Imphal. Features includ...

Manhattan Project
Code name for the development of the atom bomb in the USA in World War II, to which the physicists Enrico Fermi and J Robert Oppenheimer contributed

Manes
In ancient Rome, the spirits of the dead, worshipped as divine and sometimes identified with the gods of the underworld (Dis and Proserpine), hence the inscription DMS (dis manibus sacrum) on many Roman tombs. They are to be distinguished from the lemures who were simply ghosts

mandolin
Plucked string instrument which flourished 1600–1800. It has four to six pairs of strings (courses) and is tuned like a violin. The fingerboard is fretted to regulate intonation. It takes its name from its almond-shaped body (Italian mandorla `almond`). Vivaldi composed two concertos for the mandolin in about 1...

Mandela, Nelson Rolihlahla
South African politician and lawyer, and the country's first post-apartheid president 1994–99. He was president of the African National Congress (ANC) 1991–97. Imprisoned from 1964, as organizer of the then banned ANC, he became a symbol of unity for the worldwide anti-apartheid...

mandala
Symmetrical sacred design in Hindu and Buddhist art, representing the universe, and the relationship of humans with the cosmos. It is used in some forms of meditation. It may be painted or made of coloured sand. Mandalas are often in the form of a richly diversified and elaborate painting in brillian...

mandate
In history, a territory whose administration was entrusted to Allied states by the League of Nations under the Treaty of Versailles after World War I. Mandated territories were former German and Turkish possessions (including Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine). When the United Nations replaced the League of Nations in 1945, mandates that had not ...

Manchukuo
Former Japanese puppet state in Manchuria and Jehol 1932–45, ruled by the former Chinese emperor Henry P'u-i

Manchuria
European name for the northeastern region of China, comprising the provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin, and Liaoning. It was united with China by the Manchu dynasty in 1644, but as the Chinese Empire declined, Japan and Russia were rivals for its control. The Russians were expelled after the Russo-Japanese War 1904–05, and in 1932 Japan conso...

Manchester, Greater
Metropolitan county of northwest England, created in 1974; in 1986 most of the functions of the former county council were transferred to metropolitan district councils. Area 1,290 sq km/498 sq mi Towns and cities Manchester, Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside, Traff...

Maluku
Group of Indonesian islands; area 74,500 sq km/28,764 sq mi; population (2000 est) 1,990,600. The capital is Ambon, on the island of Ambon. As the Spice Islands, they were formerly part of the Dutch East Indies; the southern Moluccas have repeatedly attempted secession from the Indone...

Malraux, André
(Georges) French writer, art critic, and politician. An active antifascist, he gained international renown for his novel La Condition humaine/Man's Estate (1933), set during the nationalist/communist revolution in China in the 1920s. L'Espoir/Day...

Malinowski, Bronislaw Kasper
Polish-born British anthropologist. Malinowski was one of the principal founders of the theory of functionalism in the social sciences. During expeditions to the Trobriand Islands, Papua New Guinea, in 1914–16 and 1917–18 his detailed studies of the islanders led him to see customs and practices in terms of their function in creating ...

Malcolm III
King of Scotland from 1058, the son of Duncan I. He fled to England in 1040 when the throne was usurped by Macbeth, but recovered southern Scotland and killed Macbeth in battle in 1057. In 1070 he married Margaret (c. 1045–1093), sister of Edgar Atheling of England; their daughter Matilda (d. 1118) married Henry I of Eng...

Malacca, Strait of
Channel between Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula; length 965 km/600 mi; it narrows to less than 38 km/24 mi wide. It carries all shipping between the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea

Makarios III
Cypriot politician and Greek Orthodox archbishop 1950–77. A leader of the Greek-Cypriot resistance organization EOKA, he was exiled by the British to the Seychelles 1956–57 for supporting armed action to achieve union with Greece (enosis). He was president of the republic of Cyprus 1960–77 (briefly deposed by a...

Maine
(US state) Click images to enlargeNortheasternmost state of the USA and the largest of the New England states, bordered to the northwest by Québec, Canada, to the north and east by New Brunswick, Canada, to the east and south by the Atlantic Oce...

Maas
Dutch or Flemish name for the River Meuse

Mackintosh, Charles Rennie
Scottish architect, designer, and painter, whose highly original work represents a dramatic break with the late Victorian style. He worked initially in the Art Nouveau idiom but later developed a unique style, both rational and expressive, that is more angular and stylized than the flowing, full-blown art nouveau style. Influenced by the Arts a...

Man Booker Prize for Fiction
British literary prize of £50,000 awarded annually (from 1969) to a Commonwealth or Irish for a novel published in the UK during the previous year. The prize is one of the world's most prestigious literary awards. The award was established by the Booker McConnell cash-and-carry company in 1968, and the first recipient of the prize ...

maya
In Hindu philosophy, mainly in the Vedanta, the cosmos that Isvara, the personal expression of Brahman, or the atman, has called into being. This is real, yet also an illusion, since its reality is not everlasting

Maximilian
Emperor of Mexico 1864–67. He accepted that title when the French emperor Napoleon III's troops occupied the country, but encountered resistance from the deposed president Benito Juárez. In 1866, after the French troops withdrew on the insistence of the USA, Maximilian was captured by Mexican republicans and shot

Maurois, André
French writer and biographer. During World War I he was attached to the British Army as a liaison officer, and the essays in Les Silences du Colonel Bramble (1918) and Les Discours du Docteur O'Grady (1920) offer humorously sympathetic observations on the British character. His other works include the semi&...

Mauriac, François
French novelist. His novels are studies, from a Roman Catholic standpoint, of the psychological and moral problems of the Catholic and provincial middle class, usually set in his native city of Bordeaux and the Landes region of southwestern France. Le Baiser au lépreux/A Kiss for the Leper (1922) describes the conflict o...

Maundy Thursday
In the Christian church, the Thursday of Holy Week, leading up to Easter. The ceremony of washing the feet of pilgrims on that day was instituted in commemoration of Jesus' washing of the apostles' feet and observed from the 4th century to 1754

Maria Theresa
Empress of Austria from 1740, when she succeeded her father, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI; her claim to the throne was challenged and she became embroiled, first in the War of the Austrian Succession 1740–48, then in the Seven Years' War 1756–63; she remained in possession of Austria but lost Silesia. The rest of her reig...

Mari El
Autonomous republic of the Russian Federation; area 23,200 sq km/8,950 sq mi; population (1990) 754,000 (47% Russian, 43% ethnic Mari). The capital is Yoshkar-Ola. The Volga flows through the southwest of the republic, 60% of which is forested. It lies west of the Ural Mountains. Industries include timber, paper, grain, ...

Margrethe II
Queen of Denmark from 1972, when she succeeded her father Frederick IX. In 1967, she married the French diplomat Count Henri de Laborde de Monpezat, who took the title Prince Hendrik. Her heir is Crown Prince Frederick (1968– )

margrave
German title (equivalent of marquess) for the `counts of the march`, who guarded the frontier regions of the Holy Roman Empire from Charlemagne's time. Later the title was used by other territorial princes. Chief among these were the margraves of Austria and of Brandenburg

Margaret, St
Queen of Scotland, the granddaughter of King Edmund Ironside of England. She went to Scotland after the Norman Conquest, and soon after married Malcolm III. The marriage of her daughter Matilda to Henry I united the Norman and English royal houses

Marengo, Battle of
During the Napoleonic Wars, defeat of the Austrians on 14 June 1800 by the French army under Napoleon Bonaparte, as part of his Italian campaign, near the village of Marengo in Piedmont, Italy. It was one of Napoleon's greatest victories which resulted in the Austrians ceding northern Italy to France

Marches
Boundary areas of England with Wales, and England with Scotland. For several centuries from the time of William the Conqueror, these troubled frontier regions were held by lords of the Marches, those on the Welsh frontier called Marcher Lords, sometimes called marchiones, and those on the Scottish border known as earls of March. ...

Marceau, Marcel
French mime artist. A central figure in the development of the art of mime, he was the creator of the clown-harlequin Bip and mime sequences such as `Youth, Maturity, Old Age, and Death`. Famed for his style and grace, Marceau studied at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, France, as well as with French pantomimist Etienne Decroux (189...

marble
Click images to enlargeRock formed by metamorphosis of sedimentary limestone. It takes and retains a good polish, and is used in building and sculpture. In its pure form it is white and consists almost entirely of calcite (CaCO3). Mineral impurities give it various colours and patterns. Carrara, Ita...

Maputo
Capital of Mozambique, and Africa's second-largest port, on Delagoa Bay; population (2000 est) 1,019,000. Linked by road and rail with Zimbabwe, Swaziland, and South Africa, it is a major outlet for these countries, as well as for Mozambique. Industries include brewing, shipbuilding, and textile and cement manufacture. Minerals, steel, ...