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


Gide, André
(Paul Guillaume) French novelist. His work is largely autobiographical and concerned with the conflict between desire and conventional morality. It includes Les Nourritures terrestres/Fruits of the Earth (1897), L'Immoraliste/The Immoralist (19...

Gibraltar, Strait of
Strait between north Africa and Spain, forming the entrance from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea, with the Rock of Gibraltar to the north side and Mount Acho to the south, the so-called Pillars of Hercules

Gibbon, Edward
English historian. He wrote one major work, arranged in three parts, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88), a continuous narrative from the 2nd century AD to the fall of Constantinople in 1453. He began work on it while in Rome in 1764. Although immediately successful, he was compelled to reply to...

Giant's Causeway
Stretch of basalt columns forming a headland on the north coast of Antrim, Northern Ireland. It was formed by an outflow of lava in Tertiary times which has solidified in polygonal columns. The Giant's Causeway and Causeway Coast became a World Heritage Site in 1986

giro
System of making payments by direct transfer between one bank or post-office account and another

Girondin
Member of the moderate republican party in the French Revolution, so called because a number of its leaders came from the Gironde region of southwestern France. The Girondins controlled the Legislative Assembly from late 1791 to late 1792, but were ousted by the radical Montagnards under Jean Paul Marat in 1793. Many Girondin leaders were executed ...

Gillray, James
English caricaturist. Creator of over 1,500 cartoons, his fierce, sometimes gross caricatures satirized George III, the Prince of Wales, politicians, and the social follies of his day, and later targeted the French and Napoleon. Initially a letter engraver and actor, he was encouraged to become a car...

Gill,
(Arthur) English sculptor, graphic designer, engraver, and writer. He designed the typefaces Perpetua in 1925 and Gill Sans (without serifs) in 1927, and created monumental stone sculptures with clean, simplified outlines, such as Prospero and Ariel (1929–31) on Broadca...

Gilgamesh
Hero of Sumerian, Hittite, Akkadian, and Assyrian legend, and lord of the Sumerian city of Uruk. The 12 verse books of the Epic of Gilgamesh were recorded in a standard version on 12 cuneiform tablets by the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal's scholars in the 7th century BC, and the epic itself is older than Homer's Ili...

Gibbons, Orlando
English composer. He wrote sacred anthems, instrumental fantasias, and madrigals including The Silver Swan for five voices (1612). From a family of musicians, he became organist at Westminster Abbey, London, in 1623

Gilbert, W(illiam) S(chwenck)
English humorist and dramatist. He collaborated with composer Arthur Sullivan, providing the libretti for their series of light comic operas from 1871 performed by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company; they include HMS Pinafore (1878), The Pirates of Penzance (1879), and The Mikado (1885)....

Gibbons, Grinling
Dutch woodcarver who settled in England around 1667. He produced delicately carved wooden panels (largely of birds, flowers, and fruit) for St Paul's Cathedral, London, and for many large English country houses including Petworth House, Sussex, and Hampton Court, Surrey. He was carpenter to English monarchs from Charles II to George I. Features...

Gibraltar
Click images to enlargeBritish dependency, situated on a narrow rocky promontory at the southern tip of Spain; the Rock of Gibraltar formed one of the Pillars of Hercules with Mount Acho, near Ceuta, across the Strait of Gibraltar on the north African coast; area 6.5 sq km/2.5 sq mi; population (2003 est) ...

Giscard d'Estaing, Valéry
French centre-right politician, president of France 1974–81. Committed to developing closer European unity, during his presidency he helped initiate the new Exchange Rate Mechanism in 1978 and direct elections to the European Parliament from 1979. He also introduced liberalizing social reforms, including divorce and abortion law reforms an...

Gilbert, William
English scientist who studied magnetism and static electricity, deducing that the Earth's magnetic field behaves as if a bar magnet joined the North and South poles. His book on magnets, published in 1600, is the first printed scientific book based wholly on experimentation and observation. Gilbert was the first English scientist to accept Nico...

gill
(measurement) Imperial unit of volume for liquid measure, equal to one-quarter of a pint or five fluid ounces (0.142 litre), traditionally used in selling alcoholic drinks. In southern England it is also called a noggin, but in northern England the large noggin is used, which is two gills

ginkgo
Tree belonging to the gymnosperm (or naked-seed-bearing) division of plants. It may reach a height of 30 m/100 ft by the time it is 200 years old. (Ginkgo biloba.) The only living member of its group (Ginkgophyta), widespread in Mesozoic times (245–65 million years...

giga-
Prefix signifying multiplication by 109 (1,000,000,000 or 1 billion), as in gigahertz, a unit of frequency equivalent to 1 billion hertz

GI
Abbreviation for government issue, hence (in the USA) a common soldier

Gillespie, Dizzy
(John Birks) US jazz trumpeter and composer. With Charlie Parker, he was the chief creator and representative of the bebop style. Gillespie influenced many modern jazz trumpeters, including Miles Davis. Although associated mainly with small combos, Gillespie formed his first big band in 1945 a...

Giulio Romano
Roman painter and architect. As assistant to Raphael, he developed a style characterized by its exaggerated movement and rich colours. Having studied under Raphael, Giulio became his chief assistant on the Sala del Incendio frescoes in the Vatican. He succeeded Raphael as head of his Rome workshop, together with Giovanni Francesc...

Giambologna
Flemish-born sculptor. He was active mainly in Florence and Bologna. In 1583 he completed his public commission for the Loggia dei Lanzi in Florence, The Rape of the Sabine Women, a dynamic group of muscular, contorted figures and a prime example of Mannerist sculpture. He also produced the Neptune Fountain...

gigabyte
In computing, a measure of memory capacity, equal to 1,024 megabytes. It is also used, less precisely, to mean 1,000 billion bytes

Gilbert, Walter
US molecular biologist who studied genetic control, seeking the mechanisms that switch genes on and off. By 1966 he had established the existence of the lac repressor, a molecule that suppresses lactose production. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1980 for his work on the sequencing of DNA nucleotides. He shared the award with Freder...

Gibbs, Josiah Willard
US theoretical physicist and chemist who developed a mathematical approach to thermodynamics and established vector methods in physics. He devised the phase rule and formulated the Gibbs adsorption isotherm. Gibbs showed how many thermodynamic laws could be interpreted in terms of the results of the movements of enormous numbers of bodies such as m...

giant molecular structure
Solid structure made up of many similar atoms joined by covalent bonds in one dimension (long chains, such as polymers), two dimensions (flat sheets as in graphite, where each layer is a giant molecule), or in three dimensions (such as in diamond and silica). General properties Giant molecules do not conduct electricity as they have no free electro...

gilding
Application of gilt (gold or a substance that looks like it) to a surface. From the 19th century, gilt was often applied to ceramics and to the relief surfaces of woodwork or plasterwork to highlight a design. Gilding ceramics The gold layer can be created in a number of ways. From 1853 until the late 1860s, brown gold – a mixture of gold chlo...

Gingrich, Newt(on Leroy)
US Republican politician, speaker of the House of Representatives 1995–98. A radical-right admirer of Reagan, he was the driving force behind his party's victory in the 1994 congressional elections, when it gained a House majority for the first time since 1954. On taking office, he sought to implement a conservative, populist manifesto...

GIF
In computing, popular and economical picture file format developed by CompuServe. GIF (pronounced with a hard `g`) was one of the two most commonly used file formats for pictures on the World Wide Web (the other being JPEG) because pictures saved in this format take up a relatively small amount of space. The term is often used simply to m...

giant structure
In chemistry, a substance in which all the atoms or ions are strongly linked together in a lattice of bonds. Giant ionic structures are produced by ionic bonds, giant molecular structures are formed by covalent bonds, and metallic structures are held together by metallic bonding. All atoms in solid materials are arranged in an ordered pattern. Ther...

giant ionic structure
Crystalline structure formed by the ions in an ionic compound. It is produced by the ionic bonds that occur when a metal and non-metal react together. The ions are closely packed in a regular cuboid lattice that may be face-centred, as in sodium chloride (NaCl), or body-centred, as in caesium chloride (CsCl). Strong chemical bonds exist...

globular cluster
Spherical or near-spherical star cluster containing from approximately 10,000 stars to many millions. About 200 known globular clusters are distributed in a spherical halo around our Galaxy. They consist of old stars, formed early in the Galaxy's history. Globular clusters are also found around other galaxies

glycol
Thick, colourless, odourless, sweetish liquid. It is used in antifreeze solutions, in the preparation of ethers and esters (used for explosives), as a solvent, and as a substitute for glycerol

glycine
Simplest amino acid, and one of the main components of proteins. When purified, it is a sweet, colourless crystalline compound. Glycine was found in space in 1994 in the star-forming region Sagittarius B2. The discovery is important because of its bearing on the origins of life on Earth. Glycine is the only biogenic amino acid that is not chira...

glycerine
Another name for glycerol

glycerol
Thick, colourless, odourless, sweetish liquid. It is obtained from vegetable and animal oils and fats (by treatment with acid, alkali, superheated steam, or an enzyme), or by fermentation of glucose, and is used in the manufacture of high explosives, in antifreeze solutions, to maintain moist conditions in fruits and tobacco, and in cosmetics

glucose
Simple sugar present in the blood and manufactured by green plants during photosynthesis. It belongs to the group of chemicals known as carbohydrates. The respiration reactions inside cells involves the oxidation of glucose to produce ATP, the `energy molecule` used to drive many of the body's biochemical reactions. As well as being u...

glass
Transparent or translucent substance that is physically neither a solid nor a liquid. Although glass is easily shattered, it is one of the strongest substances known. It is made by fusing certain types of sand (silica); this fusion occurs naturally in volcanic glass (see obsidian). In the industr...

globefish
Another name for the puffer fish

glow-worm
Wingless female of any of a large number of luminous beetles (fireflies). The luminous organs, situated under the abdomen, at the end of the body, give off a greenish glow at night and attract winged males for mating. There are about 2,000 species of glow-worms, distributed worldwide. (Family Lampyridae.)

glue
Type of adhesive

gland
Specialized organ of the body that manufactures and secretes enzymes, hormones, or other chemicals. In animals, glands vary in size from small (for example, tear glands) to large (for example, the pancreas), but in plants they are always small, and may consist of a single cell. Some glands discharge their products internally, endocrine glands, and ...

Gloucester
(UK) City, port, and administrative headquarters of Gloucestershire, southwest England, on the River Severn, 67 km/42 mi northeast of Bristol; population (2001) 123,200. It is a finance and insurance centre, and manufactures aerospace equipment, ice cream and frozen foods, machinery (l...

Glendower, Owen
Welsh nationalist leader. He led a rebellion against Henry IV of England, taking the title `Prince of Wales` in 1400, and successfully led the Welsh defence against English invasions in 1400–02, though Wales was reconquered by the English in 1405–13. He gained control of most of the country and established an independent Welsh p...

Glasgow
City and administrative headquarters of Glasgow City unitary authority, situated on the river Clyde in southwest Scotland, 67 km/42 mi west of Edinburgh; population (2001) 577,900. The city is the administrative, social, and service centre for the Glasgow conurbation, which extends from Gouro...

glandular fever
Viral disease characterized at onset by fever and painfully swollen lymph nodes (in the neck); there may also be digestive upset, sore throat, and skin rashes. Lassitude persists for months and even years, and recovery can be slow. It is caused by the Epstein–Barr virus

Gluck, Christoph Willibald von
Bohemian-German composer. His series of `reform` operas moved music away from the usual practices of the day, in which the interests of singers were the most important considerations. He felt that music should serve poetry by means of expression and follow the situations of the story without interrupting the action. He therefore repla...

gliding
The art of using air currents to fly unpowered aircraft. Technically, gliding involves the gradual loss of altitude; gliders designed for soaring flight (utilizing air rising up a cliff face or hill, warm air rising as a thermal above sun-heated ground, and so on) are known as sailplanes. Soa...

Glencoe
Valley in the Highland unitary authority, Scotland, extending 16 km/10 mi east from Rannoch Moor to Loch Leven. The mountains rise steeply on either side to over 1,000 m/3,300 ft, and the River Coe flows through the valley. Thirty-eight members of the Macdonald clan were massacred in Glen...

Glastonbury
Click images to enlargeMarket town in Somerset, southwest England, on the River Brue, 8 km/5 mi southwest of Wells; population (2001) 8,400. Light industries include injection moulding, and the production of footwear and leather goods. Tourism and warehousing are also important. Glastonbury Tor, a hill crowned by ...

Glamorgan
Three counties of south Wales – Mid Glamorgan, South Glamorgan, and West Glamorgan – created in 1974 from the former county of Glamorganshire. All are on the Bristol Channel. In 1996 Mid Glamorgan was divided amongst Rhondda Cynon Taff, Merthyr Tydfil, Bridgend, and Vale of Glamorgan; South Glamorgan was divided amongst Cardiff and Va...

Gladstone, William Ewart
Click images to enlargeBritish Liberal politician, four times prime minister. He entered Parliament as a Tory in 1833 and held ministerial office, but left the party in 1846 and after 1859 identified himself with the Liberals. He was chancellor of the Exchequer 1852–55 and 1859–66, and prime minister 1868–7...

gladiator
In ancient Rome, a trained fighter, recruited mainly from slaves, criminals, and prisoners of war, who fought to the death in arenas for the entertainment of spectators. The custom was introduced into Rome from Etruria in 264 BC and continued until the 5th century AD

glacier
Click images to enlargeBody of ice, originating in mountains in snowfields above the snowline, that moves slowly downhill and is constantly built up from its source. The geographic features produced by the erosive action of glaciers (erosion) are characteristic and include glacial troughs (U-shaped valleys), corries, ...

gladiolus
Any plant of a group of southern European and African cultivated perennials belonging to the iris family, with brightly coloured funnel-shaped flowers borne on a spike; the swordlike leaves spring from a corm (swollen underground stem). (Genus Gladiolus, family Iridaceae.)

glycogen
Click images to enlargePolymer (a polysaccharide) of the sugar glucose made and retained in the liver as a carbohydrate store, for which reason it is sometimes called animal starch. It is a source of energy when needed by muscles, where it is converted back into glucose by the hormone insulin and metabolized

Glass, Philip
US composer. While a student of French music teacher Nadia Boulanger he became strongly influenced by Indian music; his work is characterized by repeated rhythmic figures that are continually expanded and modified. His compositions include the operas Einstein on the Beach (1976), Akhnaten (1984), T...

glaze
In ceramics, a thin coating for pottery and porcelain, which gives the object a protective finish and helps to keep it from leaking and chipping. Glaze is applied by dipping a formed ceramic item into it or by painting onto the surface. It is fixed by firing in a kiln. Different mineral glazes will react variously with the surface of the ceramic, a...

glaucoma
Condition in which pressure inside the eye (intraocular pressure) is raised abnormally as excess fluid accumulates. It occurs when the normal outflow of fluid within the chamber of the eye (aqueous humour) is interrupted. As pressure rises, the optic nerve suffers irreversible damage, leading to a reduction in the field of vision and, ultimately, l...

glue-sniffing
Inhalation of the fumes from organic solvents of the type found in paints, lighter fuel, and glue, for their hallucinatory effects. As well as being addictive, solvents are dangerous for their effects on the user's liver, heart, and lungs. It is believed that solvents produce hallucinations by disrupting the cell membrane of brain cells, thus a...

glyceride
Ester formed between one or more acids and glycerol (propan-1,2,3-triol). A glyceride is termed a mono-, di-, or triglyceride, depending on the number of hydroxyl groups from the glycerol that have reacted with the acids. Glycerides, chiefly triglycerides, occur naturally as esters of fatty acids in plant oils and animal fats. Cell ...

glockenspiel
Tuned percussion instrument of light metal bars mounted on a carrying frame for use in military bands or on a standing frame for use in an orchestra (in which form it resembles a small xylophone or celesta). It is played with hammers or via a piano keyboard attachment

gluon
In physics, a gauge boson that carries the strong nuclear force, responsible for binding quarks together to form the strongly interacting subatomic particles known as hadrons. There are eight kinds of gluon. Gluons cannot exist in isolation; they are believed to exist in balls (`glueballs`) that behave as single particles. The existen...

Glorious Revolution
In British history, the events surrounding the removal of James II from the throne and his replacement in 1689 by his daughter Mary and William of Orange as joint sovereigns (Mary II and William III), bound by the Bill of Rights. Events James II had become increasingly unpopular on account of his unconstitutional behaviour and Catholicism. In June ...

glass snake
Any of a worldwide group of legless lizards. Their tails are up to three times the head–body length and are easily broken off. (Genus Ophisaurus, family Anguidae.)

global warming
Increase in average global temperature, amounting to approximately 0.74°C/1.3°F from 1906 to 2005. Much of this is thought to be related to human activity. Global temperature has been highly variable in Earth history and many fluctuations in global temperature have occurred in historica...

glue ear
Condition commonly affecting small children, in which the Eustachian tube, which normally drains and ventilates the middle ear, becomes blocked with mucus. The resulting accumulation of mucus in the middle ear muffles hearing. It is the leading cause of deafness (usually transient) in children. Glue ear resolves spontaneously after some months, but...

glam rock
Pop music in a conventional rock style performed by elaborately made-up and overdressed musicians. English singers Marc Bolan (1947–1977) and David Bowie and the band Roxy Music (1970–83) pioneered glam rock in the early 1970s

gluten
Protein found in cereal grains, especially wheat and rye. Gluten enables dough to expand during rising. Sensitivity to gliadin, a type of gluten, gives rise to coeliac disease

glacial deposition
Click images to enlargeLaying-down (deposition) of sediment once carried by a glacier. When ice melts, it deposits the material that it has been carrying. The material deposited by a glacier is called till, or in Britain boulder clay. It comprises angular particles of all sizes from boulders to clay that are unsorted ...

glacial erosion
Click images to enlargeWearing-down and removal of rocks and soil by a glacier. Glacial erosion forms impressive landscape features, including glacial troughs (U-shaped valleys), arêtes (steep ridges), corries (enlarged hollows), and pyramidal peaks (high mountain peaks with three or more arêtes). Erosio...

glacial trough
Click images to enlargeSteep-sided, flat-bottomed valley formed by a glacier. The erosive action of the glacier and of the debris carried by it results in the formation not only of the trough itself but also of a number of associated features, such as hanging valleys (smaller glacial valleys that enter the trough ...

glacier budget
In a glacier, the balance between accumulation (the addition of snow and ice to the glacier) and ablation (the loss of snow and ice by melting and evaporation). If accumulation exceeds ablation the glacier will advance; if ablation exceeds accumulation it will probably retreat. The rate of advance and retreat of a glacier varies from a few cent...

glass-reinforced plastic
A plastic material strengthened by glass fibres, sometimes erroneously called fibreglass. Glass-reinforced plastic is a favoured material for boat hulls and for the bodies and some structural components of high-performance cars and aircraft; it is also used in the manufacture of passenger cars. Products are usually moulded, mats of glas...

glasses
Pair of lenses fitted in a frame and worn in front of the eyes to correct or assist defective vision. Common defects of the eye corrected by lenses are short sight (myopia) by using concave (spherical) lenses, long sight (hypermetropia) by using convex (spherical) lenses, and astigmatism by using cylindrical lenses. Spherical and cylindrical lenses...

glottis
In medicine, narrow opening at the upper end of the larynx that contains the vocal cords

glucagon
In biology, a hormone secreted by the pancreas, which increases the concentration of glucose in the blood by promoting the breakdown of glycogen in the liver. Secretion occurs in response to a lowering of blood glucose concentrations. Glucagon injections can be issued to people living with patients with diabetes who are being treated with insulin. ...

globalization
Process by which different parts of the globe become interconnected by economic, social, cultural, and political means. Globalization has become increasingly rapid since the 1970s and 1980s as a result of developments in technology, communications, and trade liberalization. Critics of globalization fear the increasing power of unelected multination...

Gloria Patri
Christian prayer. In the Roman Catholic and some Anglican churches, it is one of the prayers recited when saying a rosary

GMT
Abbreviation for Greenwich Mean Time

gneiss
Coarse-grained metamorphic rock, formed under conditions of high temperature and pressure, and often occurring in association with schists and granites. It has a foliated, or layered, structure consisting of thin bands of micas and/or amphiboles dark in colour alternating with bands of granular quartz and feldspar that are light in colour. ...

GNP
Abbreviation for gross national product

gnu
Another name for wildebeest

gnat
Any of a group of small two-winged biting insects belonging to the mosquito family. The eggs are laid in water, where they hatch into wormlike larvae, which pass through a pupal stage (see pupa) to emerge as adults. (Family Culicidae.) Species include Culex pipiens, abundant in England; the carrier of malaria Ano...

Gnosticism
Esoteric cult of divine knowledge (a synthesis of Christianity, Greek philosophy, Hinduism, Buddhism, and the mystery cults of the Mediterranean), which flourished during the 2nd and 3rd centuries and was a rival to, and influence on, early Christianity. The medieval French Cathar heresy and the modern Mandean sect (in southern Iraq) descend from G...

gourd
Any of a group of plants that includes melons and pumpkins. In a narrower sense, the name applies only to the genus Lagenaria, of which the bottle gourd or calabash (L. siceraria) is best known. (Family Cucurbitaceae.)

gorse
Any of a group of plants native to Europe and Asia, consisting of thorny shrubs with spine-shaped leaves growing thickly along the stems and bright-yellow coconut-scented flowers. (Genus Ulex, family Leguminosae.)

goosefoot
Any of a group of plants belonging to the goosefoot family, closely related to spinach and beets. The seeds of white goosefoot (C. album) were used as food in Europe from Neolithic times, and also from early times in the Americas. White goosefoot grows to 1 m/3 ft tall and has lance- or diamond-shaped leaves and packe...

gooseberry
Edible fruit of a low-growing bush (Ribes uva-crispa) found in Europe and Asia, related to the currant. It is straggling in its growth, and has straight sharp spines in groups of three and rounded, lobed leaves. The flowers are green and hang on short stalks. The sharp-tasting fruits are round, hairy, and generally gr...

goldenrod
One of several tall and leafy North American perennial plants, belonging to the daisy family. Flower heads are mostly composed of many small yellow flowers, or florets. (Genus Solidago, family Compositae.)

goshawk
Woodland hawk similar in appearance to the peregrine falcon, but with shorter wings and legs. It is native to most of Europe, Asia, and North America, and is used in falconry. The male is much smaller than the female. It is ash grey on the upper part of the body and whitish underneath with brown horizontal stripes; it has a dark head and cheeks...

gorilla
Largest of the apes, found in the dense forests of West Africa and mountains of central Africa. The male stands about 1.8 m/6 ft high and weighs about 200 kg/450 lb. Females are about half this size. The body is covered with blackish hair, silvered on the back in older males. Gorillas live in family groups; they are vegetarian, highly i...

gopher
Any of a group of burrowing rodents. Gophers are a kind of ground squirrel represented by some 20 species distributed across western North America, Europe, and Asia. Length ranges from 15 cm/6 in to 90 cm/16 in, excluding the furry tail; colouring ranges from plain yellowish to striped and spotted species. (Genus Citellus
goose
Any of several large aquatic birds belonging to the same family as ducks and swans. There are about 12 species, found in North America, Greenland, Europe, North Africa, and Asia north of the Himalayas. Both sexes are similar in appearance: they have short, webbed feet, placed nearer the front of the body than in other members of the family, and...

goldfish
Fish belonging to the carp family, found in East Asia. It is greenish-brown in its natural state, but has been bred by the Chinese for centuries, taking on highly coloured and sometimes freakishly shaped forms. Goldfish can occur in a greater range of colours than any other animal tested. (Species Carassius auratus, family Cy...

goldfinch
Songbird found in Eurasia, North Africa, and North America. (Species Carduelis carduelis, family Fringillidae, order Passeriformes.)

goldcrest
Smallest European bird, about 9 cm/3.5 in long and weighing 5 g/0.011 lb; a warbler. It is olive green, with a bright orange-yellow streak running from the beak to the back of the head and a black border above the eye. The tail is brown, marked with black and white, and the cheeks, th...

goat
Ruminant mammal (it chews the cud), closely related to sheep. Both male and female goats have horns and beards. They are sure-footed animals, and feed on shoots and leaves more than on grass. (Genus Capra, family Bovidae.) Domestic varieties are descended from the scimitar-horned wild goat (C. aegagrus)...

Goddard, Robert Hutchings
US rocket pioneer. He launched the first liquid-fuelled rocket at Auburn, Massachusetts, in 1926. By 1932 his rockets had gyroscopic control and could carry cameras to record instrument readings. Two years later a Goddard rocket achieved the world altitude record with an ascent of 3 km/1.9 mi...

government
Any system whereby political authority is exercised. Modern systems of government distinguish between liberal democracies, totalitarian (one-party) states, and autocracies (authoritarian, relying on force rather than ideology). The Greek philosopher Aristotle was the first to attempt a systematic classification of governments. His main distinct...