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Mythology

The science which treats of myths; a treatise on myths.

Mythopoeic

Making or producing myths; giving rise to mythical narratives.

Mythopoetic

Making or producing myths or mythical tales.

Mytiloid

Like, or pertaining to, the genus Mytilus, or family Mytilidae.

Mytilotoxine

A poisonous base (leucomaine) found in the common mussel. It either causes paralysis of the muscles, or gives rise to convulsions, including death by an accumulation of carbonic acid in the blood.

Mytilus

A genus of marine bivalve shells, including the common mussel. See Illust. under Byssus.

Myxa

The distal end of the mandibles of a bird.

myxedema

A pathological condition due to severe hyperthyroidism, marked by dry skin and swellings around lips and nose as well as mental and physical deterioration.

Myxine

A genus of marsipobranchs, including the hagfish. See Hag, 4.

Myxinoid

Like, or pertaining to, the genus Myxine. A hagfish.

Myxinoidei

A suborder of hagfishes as distinguished from lampreys.

Myxobacteriaceae

A family of bacteria living mostly in soils and on dung; called also Polyangiaceae.

myxobacterium

A type of bacteria that form colonies in self-produced slime; they inhabit moist soils or decaying plant matter or animal waste.

Myxocephalus

A genus of fish including the grubb (Myxocephalus aenaeus), a type of sculpin.

Myxocystodea

A division of Infusoria including the Noctiluca. See Noctiluca.

Myxoedema

A disease producing a peculiar cretinoid appearance of the face, slow speech, and dullness of intellect, and due to failure of the functions of the thyroid gland.

Myxoma

A tumor made up of a gelatinous tissue resembling that found in the umbilical cord.

Myxomycetes

A class of peculiar organisms, the slime molds, formerly regarded as animals (Mycetozoa), but now generally thought to be plants and often separated as a distinct phylum (Myxophyta); essentially equivalent to the division Myxomycota. They are found on damp earth and decaying vegetable matter, and consist of naked masses of protoplasm, often of considerable size, which creep very slowly over the surface and ingest solid food.

Myxomycota

The slime molds; organisms having a noncellular and multinucleate creeping vegetative phase and a propagative spore-producing stage: comprises Myxomycetes and Acrasiomycetes and Plasmodiophoromycetes; in some classifications placed in the kingdom Protoctista.

Myxophyceae

A former term for the natural family Cyanophyceae.

Myxophyta

A phylum of the vegetable kingdom consisting of the class Myxomycetes. By some botanists it is not separated from the Thallophyta.

Myxopod

A rhizopod or moneran. Also used adjectively; as, a myxopod state.

myxosporidian

An organism of the order Myxosporidia, mostly parasitic in fishes and including various serious pathogens.

Myzostomata

An order of curious parasitic worms found on crinoids. The body is short and disklike, with four pairs of suckers and five pairs of hook-bearing parapodia on the under side.

N

A measure of space equal to half an M (or em); an en.

Na

No, not. See No.

Na-dene

A family of North American Indian languages including Tlingit, the Athabascan language family, and Haida.

Nab

To catch or seize suddenly or unexpectedly.

Nabit

Pulverized sugar candy.

Nabk

The edible berries of the Zizyphys Lotus, a tree of Northern Africa, and Southwestern Europe.

Nabob

A deputy or viceroy in India; a governor of a province of the ancient Mogul empire.

Nacarat

A pale red color, with a cast of orange.

nacho

A tortilla chip topped with cheese and often chili-pepper or beans and then broiled; -- eaten as a snack or light meal.

Nacre

Having the peculiar iridescence of nacre, or mother-of-pearl, or an iridescence resembling it; as, nacr/ ware.

Nacreous

Consisting of, or resembling, nacre; pearly.

Nadir

That point of the heavens, or lower hemisphere, directly opposite the zenith; the inferior pole of the horizon; the point of the celestial sphere directly under the place where we stand.

Naevoid

Resembling a naevus or naevi; as, naevoid elephantiasis.

Naevus

A spot or mark on the skin of children when born; a birthmark; -- the term includes moles as wells a other types of birthmark, and is most commonly applied to reddish or brownish raised vascular areas of the skin, i. e., those consisting mainly of blood vessels, as dilated arteries, veins, or capillaries.

Nag

A person who nags, especially habitually; called also nagger.

nagami

A shrub (Fortunella margarita) bearing oval-fruited kumquats. See also kumquat.

Nagana

A disease of horses and other domestic animals, transmitted by the tsetse fly; any trypanosomiasis, especially the variety caused by Trypanosoma brucei.

Nageia

A small genus of Asian evergreen trees having columnar crowns and distinguished by leaves lacking a midrib; eastern Asia including India and Philippines and New Guinea.

nagger

Someone (especially a woman) who constantly finds fault.

Nagging

Fault-finding; teasing; persistently annoying; as, a nagging toothache.

Nagor

A West African gazelle (Gazella redunca).

Nagyagite

A mineral of blackish lead-gray color and metallic luster, generally of a foliated massive structure; foliated tellurium. It is a telluride of lead and gold.

Naiad

A water nymph; one of the lower female divinities, fabled to preside over some body of fresh water, as a lake, river, brook, or fountain.

Naiadaceae

A monotypic family of aquatic plants having narrow leaves and small flowers.

naid

Any one of numerous species of small, fresh-water, chaetopod annelids of the tribe Naidina. They belong to the Oligochaeta.

Naif

Having a true natural luster without being cut; -- applied by jewelers to a precious stone.

Naik

A chief; a leader; a Sepoy corporal.

Nail

To fasten with a nail or nails; to close up or secure by means of nails; as, to nail boards to the beams.

Nail-headed

Having a head like that of a nail; formed so as to resemble the head of a nail.

Nailer

One whose occupation is to make nails; a nail maker.

Nainsook

A thick sort of jaconet muslin, plain or striped, formerly made in India.

naive naive

Having native or unaffected simplicity; ingenuous; artless; frank; as, na/ve manners; a na/ve person; na/ve and unsophisticated remarks.

Naivete

The state or quality of being naive; lack of sophistication or worldliness.

Naja

A genus of cobras.

Najadaceae

A monotypic family of aquatic plants having narrow leaves and small flowers; same as Naiadaceae; the naiad family.

Najas

The sole genus of the family Naiadaceae.

Nakedly

In a naked manner; without covering or disguise; manifestly; simply; barely.

Naker

A kind of kettledrum.

Nale

Ale; also, an alehouse.

Nam

imp. of Nim.

Namation

A distraining or levying of a distress; an impounding.

Namaycush

A large North American lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush). It is usually spotted with red, and sometimes weighs over forty pounds. Called also Mackinaw trout, lake trout, lake salmon, salmon trout, togue, and tuladi.

Namby-pamby

Affectedly pretty; weakly sentimental; finical; insipid.

Name

To give a distinctive name or appellation to; to entitle; to denominate; to style; to call.

name-dropping

The practice of casually mentioning important people in order to impress one's listener.

named

given or having a specified name; as, an actor named Harold Lloyd; a building in Cardiff named the Temple of Peace. Contrasted to unnamed.

namedrop

To refer to people that one assumes one's interlocutors admire so as to impress them; same as to drop names.

namedropper

Someone who pretends that famous people are his/her friends. Someone who namedrops.

nameko

one of the most important fungi (Pholiota nameko) cultivated in Japan.

Nameless

Without a name; not having been given a name; as, a nameless star.

Namely

By name; by particular mention; specifically; especially; expressly.

Namer

One who names, or calls by name.

Namesake

One that has the same name as another; especially, one called after, or named out of regard to, another.

Nammu

The Sumerian goddess personifying the primeval sea; mother of the gods and of heaven and earth.

Namtaru Namtar

A demon personifying death; messenger of the underworld goddess Ereshkigal bringing death to mankind.

Nandine

An African carnivore (Nandinia binotata), allied to the civets. It is spotted with black.

Nandu Nandou

Any one of three species of South American ostriches of the genera Rhea and Pterocnemia, especially the smallest, Pterocnemia pennata (formerly Rhea Americana), called also the common rhea. They are tall fast-running flightless birds similar to ostriches but three-toed, found from Peru to the Straits of Magellan. See Rhea.

Nanism

The condition of being abnormally small in stature; dwarfism; dwarfishness; -- opposed to gigantism.

Nankeen

A species of cloth, of a firm texture, originally brought from China, made of a species of cotton (Gossypium religiosum) that is naturally of a brownish yellow color quite indestructible and permanent.

Nannie Nanny

a caretaker for a child; a child's nurse; a nursemaid.

Nanny

A diminutive of Ann or Anne, the proper name.

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