(Homonym: butt).
1. A word expressing contrast or opposition between two phrases.
2. Except.

ETYM Latin amuletum: cf. French amulette.
A trinket or piece of jewelry thought to be a protection against evil; SYN. talisman.
An object used as a good luck charm, usually worn, for example on a necklace or bracelet. Amulets were very common in ancient Egypt; the scarab, a model of the dung beetle Scarabeus sacer, symbolized the Egyptian god of the Sun, Khepri, and eternal life. Their purpose was to secure for the wearer the qualities of the creature they represented, or simply to represent a god. Present-day amulets include the horseshoe, St Christopher medallion, and rabbit’s foot.

ETYM French charme, from Latin carmen song, verse, incantation, for casmen, akin to Skr. çasman, çasâ, a laudatory song, from a root signifying to praise, to sing.
Something believed to bring good luck; SYN. good luck charm.
In physics, a property possessed by one type of quark (very small particles found inside protons and neutrons), called the charm quark. The effects of charm are only seen in experiments with particle accelerators. See elementary particles.

Excessive or irrational devotion to some activity; SYN. fetich.

ETYM Through French from Pr. mascot a little sorcerer or magician, mascotto witchcraft, sorcery.
A person or animal that is adopted by a team or other group as a symbolic figure.

ETYM Latin medicina (sc. ars), from medicinus medical, from medicus: cf. French médecine. Related to Medical.
The practice of preventing, diagnosing, and treating disease, both physical and mental; also any substance used in the treatment of disease. The basis of medicine is anatomy (the structure and form of the body) and physiology (the study of the body's functions).
In the West, medicine increasingly relies on new drugs and sophisticated surgical techniques, while diagnosis of disease is more and more by noninvasive procedures. The time and cost of Western-type medical training makes it inaccessible to many parts of the Third World; where health care of this kind is provided it is often by auxiliary medical helpers trained in hygiene and the administration of a limited number of standard drugs for the prevalent diseases of a particular region.
1. Something that treats or prevents or alleviates the symptoms of disease; SYN. medication, medicament, medicinal drug.
2. The branches of medical science that deal with nonsurgical techniques.
3. The learned profession that is mastered by graduate training in a medical school and that is devoted to preventing or alleviating or curing diseases and injuries; SYN. practice of medicine.

fear of riding in a car

(river) South American river, the world's second longest, 6,570 km/4,080 mi, and the largest in volume of water. Its main headstreams, the Marañón and the Ucayali, rise in central Peru and unite to flow E across Brazil for about 4,000 km/2,500 mi. It has 48,280 km/30,000 mi of navigable waterways, draining 7,000,000 sq km/2,750,000 sq mi, nearly half the South American landmass. It reaches the Atlantic on the equator, its estuary 80 km/50 mi wide, discharging a volume of water so immense that 64 km/40 mi out to sea, fresh water remains at the surface. The Amazon basin covers 7.5 million sq km/3 million sq mi, of which 5 million sq km/2 million sq mi is tropical forest containing 30% of all known plant and animal species (80,000 known species of trees, 3,000 known species of land vertebrates, 2,000 freshwater fish). It is the wettest region on Earth; average rainfall 2.54 m/8.3 ft a year.
The opening up of the Amazon river basin to settlers from the overpopulated east coast has resulted in a massive burning of tropical forest to create both arable and pasture land. The problems of soil erosion, the disappearance of potentially useful plant and animal species, and the possible impact of large-scale forest clearance on global warming of the atmosphere have become environmental issues of international concern.
Brazil, with one third of the world's remaining tropical rainforest, has 55,000 species of flowering plant, half of which are only found in Brazilian Amazonia. In June 1990 the Brazilian Satellite Research Institute announced that 8% of the rainforest in the area had been destroyed by deforestation, amounting to 404,000 sq km/155,944 sq mi (nearly the size of Sweden).

Town in Missouri (USA); zip code 64421.
Those regions of Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia lying within the basin of the Amazon River.

(warrior) In Greek mythology, a member of a group of female warriors living near the Black Sea, who cut off their right breasts to use the bow more easily. Their queen Penthesilea was killed by Achilles at the siege of Troy. The term Amazon has come to mean a large, strong woman.
The Amazons attacked Theseus and besieged him at Athens, but were defeated, and Theseus took the Amazon Hippolyta captive; she later gave birth to Hippolytus.
1. A major South American river; flows into the South Atlantic; the world's 2nd longest river (4000 miles); Also called: Amazon River.
2. (Greek mythology) One of a nation of women warriors of Scythia (who burned off the right breast in order to use a bow and arrow more effectively).

1. Of or pertaining to the river Amazon in South America, or to its valley.
2. Of masculine manners (said of women); warlike.
3. Pertaining to or resembling an Amazon (Mythology).