North American republic containing 50 states - 48 conterminous states in North America plus Alaska in northwest North America and the Hawaiian Islands in the Pacific Ocean; achieved independence in 1776
the discipline that studies the principles of transmiting information and the methods by which it is delivered (as print or radio or television etc.); "communications is his major field of study"
(computer science) the area of the screen in graphical user interfaces against which icons and windows appear
a person's social heritage: previous experience or training; "he is a lawyer with a sports background"
information that is essential to understanding a situation or problem; "the embassy filled him in on the background of the incident"
the part of a scene (or picture) that lies behind objects in the foreground; "he posed her against a background of rolling hills"
relatively unimportant or inconspicuous accompanying situation; "when the rain came he could hear the sound of thunder in the background"
extraneous signals that can be confused with the phenomenon to be observed or measured; "they got a bad connection and could hardly hear one another over the background signals"
understate the importance or quality of; "he played down his royal ancestry"
the act of consorting with or joining with others; "you cannot be convicted of criminal guilt by association"
the process of bringing ideas or events together in memory or imagination; "conditioning is a form of learning by association"
(ecology) a group of organisms (plants and animals) that live together in a certain geographical region and constitute a community with a few dominant species
a formal organization of people or groups of people; "he joined the Modern Language Association"
(chemistry) any process of combination (especially in solution) that depends on relatively weak chemical bonding
a relation resulting from interaction or dependence; "flints were found in association with the prehistoric remains of the bear"; "the host is not always injured by association with a parasite"
the state of being connected together as in memory or imagination; "his association of his father with being beaten was too strong to break"
not segregated; designated as available to all races or groups; "integrated schools"
formed into a whole or introduced into another entity; "a more closely integrated economic and political system"- Dwight D.Eisenhower; "an integrated Europe"
resembling a living organism in organization or development; "society as an integrated whole"
designation by the chair granting a person the right to speak in a deliberative body; "he was unable to make his motion because he couldn't get recognition by the chairman"
the process of recognizing something or someone by remembering; "a politician whose recall of names was as remarkable as his recognition of faces"; "experimental psychologists measure the elapsed time from the onset of the stimulus to its recognition by the observer"
an acceptance (as of a claim) as true and valid; "the recognition of the Rio Grande as a boundary between Mexico and the United States"
approval; "give her recognition for trying"; "he was given credit for his work"; "give her credit for trying"; "the credits were given at the end of the film"
the explicit and formal acknowledgement of a government or of the national independence of a country; "territorial disputes were resolved in Guatemala's recognition of Belize in 1991"
(biology) the ability of one molecule to attach to another molecule that has a complementary shape; "molecular recognition drives all of biology, for instance, hormone and receptor or antibody-antigen interactions or the organization of molecules into larger biologically active entities"
the state or quality of being recognized or acknowledged; "the partners were delighted with the recognition of their work"; "she seems to avoid much in the way of recognition or acknowledgement of feminist work prior to her own"