- Motagua River (river, Guatemala)
Motagua River, river in eastern Guatemala, rising in the central highlands near Chichicastenango. The Motagua is Guatemala’s longest river, measuring approximately 250 miles (400 km). Flowing generally eastward and northeastward, it empties into Omoa Bay off the Gulf of Honduras at the Honduran
- Mote Marine Laboratory (research laboratory, Sarasota, Florida, United States)
Eugenie Clark: …year it was renamed the Mote Marine Laboratory. The year the lab was built, Clark was asked by a cancer researcher to capture some sharks so he could study their livers; that led to the creation of a pen for live sharks at the site. In 1958 Clark undertook research…
- motel
motel, type of affordable lodging originally catering to motorists. They typically offer rooms arranged along exterior corridors with direct access to an adjacent parking area and are regarded as having a more informal atmosphere compared to hotels; often the guest rather than a porter transports
- Moten, Bennie (American musician)
Bennie Moten was an American pianist, one of the earliest known organizers of bands in the Midwest in the emergent years of jazz. Moten became a bandleader in and around his hometown of Kansas City, Missouri, in 1922 and remained so until his death. His recording debut was in 1923, and his early
- Motes, Hazel (fictional character)
Hazel Motes, fictional character, a fierce, Jesus-haunted man in Flannery O’Connor’s darkly comic novel Wise Blood (1952). The work’s protagonist, Motes preaches nihilism and the pursuit of sin in his “Church Without Christ.” Although at first he rejects conventional religion, he is obsessed with
- motet (vocal music)
motet, (French mot: “word”), style of vocal composition that has undergone numerous transformations through many centuries. Typically, it is a Latin religious choral composition, yet it can be a secular composition or a work for soloist(s) and instrumental accompaniment, in any language, with or
- motet Passion (vocal music)
Passion music: …Passions adopted a style called motet Passion because the entire text is set polyphonically, as in a motet. The 16th-century French composer Antoine de Longaval, who made extensive use of the plainsong formulas, was more concerned with declamation of the text than with elaborate polyphony. Among the Germans, Jacob Handl…
- Moteucçoma (Aztec emperor)
Montezuma II was the ninth Aztec emperor of Mexico, famous for his dramatic confrontation with the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés. In 1502 Montezuma succeeded his uncle Ahuitzotl as the leader of an empire that had reached its greatest extent, stretching to what is now Honduras and Nicaragua,
- Moth (British aircraft)
Geoffrey de Havilland: The success of the Moth, a light two-seater, made the company financially successful and started the flying club movement in Great Britain. In World War II the company’s most successful product was the twin-engined Mosquito, a high-speed, all-purpose aircraft of plywood construction. After the war, he pioneered the Comet…
- moth (insect)
moth, (superfamily Noctuoidea), any of about 160,000 species of overwhelmingly nocturnal flying insects that, along with the butterflies and skippers, constitute the order Lepidoptera. Moth are distributed nearly worldwide. Although their larvae may be destructive to certain plants—and several moth
- moth borer (insect)
sugarcane: Pests: The moth borer, Diatraea saccharalis, which is widely distributed throughout cane-growing areas, is capable of causing extensive damage when out of control. Sugarcane can be protected against wireworms by applying insecticides when cane sets are planted. Rats, which destroy part of the stalk, are controlled by…
- moth flower (botany)
pollination: Butterflies and moths: Typical moth flowers—e.g., jimsonweed, stephanotis, and honeysuckle—are light-colored, often long and narrow, without landing platforms. The petals are sometimes fringed; the copious nectar is often in a spur. They are open and overwhelmingly fragrant at night. Butterfly flowers—e.g., those of butterfly bush, milkweed, and verbena—are conspicuously…
- moth fly (insect)
moth fly, (family Psychodidae), any member of a family of insects in the fly order, Diptera, that are small and mothlike and are commonly found around the openings of drain pipes. No more than 5 mm (0.2 inch) long, these flies have broad hairy wings that are held rooflike over the body when at
- moth orchid (plant)
moth orchid, (genus Phalaenopsis), genus of about 60 species of orchids (family Orchidaceae), native to southeastern Asia and part of Australia. Some species are cultivated for the commercial flower trade and are crossed to produce hybrids with beautiful white, purple, and pink flowers. Many of the
- moth owl (bird)
moth owl, Australian bird, a species of owlet frogmouth
- Mothe Le Vayer, François de La (French writer and philosopher)
François de La Mothe Le Vayer was an independent French thinker and writer who developed a philosophy of Skepticism more radical than that of Michel de Montaigne but less absolute than that of Pierre Bayle. La Mothe Le Vayer became an avocat in the Parlement of Paris, taking over his father’s seat,
- Mothe, Jean-Baptiste M. Vallin de la (French architect)
St. Petersburg: Admiralty Side: …Dvor (1761–85), originally designed by Jean-Baptiste M. Vallin de la Mothe. This building forms an irregular square and opens onto four streets; formerly it was a mercantile centre. Other department stores line Nevsky Prospekt, as do many restaurants, cafés, and theatres—most notably the Pushkin Academic Drama Theatre.
- Mothe-Fénelon, François de Salignac de La (French archbishop and theologian)
François de Salignac de La Mothe-Fénelon was a French archbishop, theologian, and man of letters whose liberal views on politics and education and his involvement in a controversy over the nature of mystical prayer caused concerted opposition from church and state. His pedagogical concepts and
- Mother (novel by Gorky)
Maxim Gorky: Plays and novels: Mat (1906; Mother) is probably the least successful of the novels, yet it has considerable interest as Gorky’s only long work devoted to the Russian revolutionary movement. It was made into a notable silent film by Vsevolod Pudovkin (1926) and dramatized by Bertolt Brecht in Die Mutter…
- Mother (film by Brooks [1996])
Albert Brooks: …in Defending Your Life (1991); Mother (1996), which starred Debbie Reynolds in the title role; The Muse (1999); and Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World (2005). He also appeared in the crime dramas Drive (2011) and A Most Violent Year (2014) and portrayed a doctor in Concussion (2015), about…
- mother (kinship)
lactation: Composition and properties of milk: The nutritional status of the mother is important throughout this period. The mother’s daily caloric intake must increase significantly in order to replenish the mother’s nutrient and energy stores. The use of drugs or smoking by the mother can adversely affect the infant; many drugs are secreted in breast milk,…
- Mother (film by Pudovkin [1926])
Vsevolod Pudovkin: He then directed Mat (1926; Mother). Based on Maxim Gorky’s novel, it exemplifies Pudovkin’s use of elaborate crosscutting of images (montage) to represent complex ideas; e.g., a sequence of scenes showing a prison riot is intercut with shots of ice breaking up on a river. Other important films were Konets…
- Mother and Child (film by Garcia [2009])
Annette Bening: Career: … (2006), The Women (2008), and Mother and Child (2009), Bening received her fourth Oscar nomination, for her starring role opposite Julianne Moore in The Kids Are All Right (2010), a dramedy about a married lesbian couple whose two children seek out their birth father.
- Mother Ann (American religious leader)
Ann Lee was a religious leader who brought the Shaker sect from England to the American colonies. Believing that her inspiration came directly from God, Lee rejected much of the theology of established churches and drew a dedicated and at times persecuted following that was attracted to her
- Mother Bailey (American patriot)
Anna Warner Bailey was an American patriot, the subject of heroic tales of the Revolutionary War and early America. Anna Warner was orphaned and was reared by an uncle. On September 6, 1781, a large British force under the turncoat General Benedict Arnold landed on the coast near Groton and stormed
- Mother Bloor (American political organizer and writer)
Ella Reeve Bloor was an American political organizer and writer who was active as an American socialist and communist, both as a candidate for public office and in labour actions in several industries. Ella Reeve grew up in Bridgeton, New Jersey. After her marriage to Lucien Ware in 1881 or 1882
- Mother Catherine-Agnes Arnauld and Sister Cathérine (Ex Voto de 1662) (painting by Champaigne)
Philippe de Champaigne: …of his later period is Mother Catherine-Agnes Arnauld and Sister Cathérine (Ex Voto de 1662), which was painted after the miraculous curing of his daughter, a nun at the Jansenist convent of Port Royal. Champaigne’s academic art theory emphasized drawing and was possibly the originator of the drawing-versus-colour controversy that…
- Mother Church, The (church, Boston, Massachusetts, United States)
First Church of Christ, Scientist, the Mother Church of Christian Science, established in Boston by Mary Baker Eddy in 1879 and reestablished as an international organization by Eddy in 1892. The church building was constructed in 1895; a domed extension was added later (1903–06). The Mother Church
- Mother Country: Britain, the Welfare State, and Nuclear Pollution (work by Robinson)
Marilynne Robinson: Early nonfiction and other works: …in her first nonfiction book, Mother Country: Britain, the Welfare State, and Nuclear Pollution (1989). The work was a finalist for the National Book Award. Nearly a decade after Mother Country, Robinson published a book of scholarly essays titled The Death of Adam (1998), which challenged the accepted views of…
- Mother Courage and Her Children (play by Brecht)
Mother Courage and Her Children, play by Bertolt Brecht, written in German as Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder: Eine Chronik aus dem Dreissigjährigen Krieg, produced in 1941 and published in 1949. The work, composed of 12 scenes, is a chronicle play of the Thirty Years’ War and is based on the
- Mother Earth (religion)
Earth Mother, in ancient and modern nonliterate religions, an eternally fruitful source of everything. Unlike the variety of female fertility deities called mother goddesses (q.v.), the Earth Mother is not a specific source of vitality who must periodically undergo sexual intercourse. She is simply
- Mother Earth (American magazine)
Emma Goldman: In that year she founded Mother Earth, a periodical that she edited until its suppression in 1917. Her naturalization as a U.S. citizen was revoked by a legal stratagem in 1908. Two years later she published Anarchism and Other Essays.
- Mother Emanuel (church, Charleston, South Carolina, United States)
African Methodist Episcopal Church: One notable exception is Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, known colloquially as Mother Emanuel, which was established in Charleston, South Carolina in 1817; it is the oldest AME church in the South. The most significant period of growth in the AME Church occurred in the final months of the…
- mother goddess (religion)
mother goddess, any of a variety of feminine deities and maternal symbols of creativity, birth, fertility, sexual union, nurturing, and the cycle of growth. The term also has been applied to figures as diverse as the so-called Stone Age Venuses and the Virgin Mary. Because motherhood is one of the
- Mother Goose (fictional character)
Mother Goose, fictitious old woman, reputedly the source of the body of traditional children’s songs and verses known as nursery rhymes. She is often pictured as a beak-nosed, sharp-chinned elderly woman riding on the back of a flying gander. “Mother Goose” was first associated with nursery rhymes
- Mother Goose’s Melody; or Sonnets for the Cradle (collection of verse)
Mother Goose: …Lullabies of old British nurses,” Mother Goose’s Melody; or Sonnets for the Cradle (1781), published by the successors of one of the first publishers of children’s books, John Newbery. The oldest extant copy dates from 1791, but it is thought that an edition appeared, or was planned, as early as…
- Mother Hubberd’s Tale (story by Spenser)
fable, parable, and allegory: Beast epic: …of material; in his “Mother Hubberd’s Tale,” published in 1591, a fox and an ape go off to visit the court, only to discover that life is no better there than in the provinces. More sage and serious, John Dryden’s poem of “The Hind and Panther” (1687) revived the…
- Mother India (film by Khan [1957])
Mother India, Bollywood film, directed by Mehboob Khan, with dialogue written by Vajahat (Wajahat) Mirza and S. Ali Raza, and released in 1957. It stars Nargis, Sunil Dutt, Rajendra Kumar, and Raaj Kumar. Considered a cinematic tour de force, Mother India was the first Indian film to be nominated
- Mother Jones (American magazine)
Roz Chast: Career: American, Harvard Business Review, Redbook, Mother Jones, and many other magazines.
- Mother Land (novel by Theroux)
Paul Theroux: Later works: The satirical Mother Land (2017) centers on a dysfunctional family headed by a narcissistic matriarch. In Under the Wave at Waimea (2021), an aging surfer examines his life after killing a man while driving drunk. Burma Sahib (2024) is a fictionalized account of Eric Blair—i.e., the young…
- mother liquor (sugar processing)
sugar: Crystallization: …added, and the sugar “mother liquor” yields a solid precipitate of about 50 percent by weight crystalline sugar. Crystallization is a serial process. The first crystallization, yielding A sugar or A strike, leaves a residual mother liquor known as A molasses. The A molasses is concentrated to yield a…
- Mother Lode Country (region, United States)
Mother Lode Country, gold rush belt, stretching through the Sierra Nevada foothills in central California, U.S. About 150 miles (240 km) long but only a few miles wide, it extended north and northwest from the vicinity of Mariposa through Tuolumne, Calaveras, Amador, El Dorado, Placer, and Nevada
- Mother London (novel by Moorcock)
Michael Moorcock: …wrote mainstream novels such as Mother London (1988), an impressionistic evocation of London from the Blitz to the 1980s, and the Pyat Quartet, a fictional history of the 20th century consisting of Byzantium Endures (1981), The Laughter of Carthage (1984), Jerusalem Commands (1992), and The Vengeance of Rome (2006).
- Mother Love (poetry by Dove)
Rita Dove: Poetry: … (1988), Grace Notes (1989), and Mother Love (1995), the last of which is a book of sonnets. On the Bus with Rosa Parks (1999) is a sequence of poems inspired by Parks and the American civil rights movement; it was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. American…
- Mother Mary (film by Lowery [2026])
Michaela Coel: Other projects from the 2020s: …starred with Anne Hathaway in Mother Mary, playing a choreographer who helps a former pop star mount a comeback.
- Mother Mary Comes to Me (memoir by Roy)
Arundhati Roy: Developments after 2014: …Those Ones in her memoir Mother Mary Comes to Me (2025), which was long-listed for the Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction.
- Mother Maybelle and the Carter Sisters (American singers)
Maybelle Carter: Performing with the Carter Family and the Carter Sisters: From 1943 to 1948, Mother Maybelle and the Carter Sisters were featured performers on the Richmond, Virginia, radio program Old Dominion Barn Dance. In 1950 they began performing on WSM’s Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, and they soon became stars. Many of their recordings from the time, such as…
- Mother Night (novel by Vonnegut)
Kurt Vonnegut: Cat’s Cradle and introducing Kilgore Trout: …science fiction tropes altogether in Mother Night (1961; film 1996), a novel about an American playwright who serves as a spy in Nazi Germany. In Cat’s Cradle (1963) some Caribbean islanders, who practice a religion consisting of harmless trivialities, come into contact with a substance discovered by an atomic scientist…
- Mother of All Battles (work by Perry)
Grayson Perry: …embroidery, creating such pieces as Mother of All Battles (1996), a woman’s folk costume stitched with ethnic symbols and images of weapons and killings, and Claire’s Coming Out Dress (2000). Perry was also the author of a novel, Cycle of Violence (1992).
- Mother of God Hodegetria, The (work by Dionisy)
Dionisy: …work of his authorship is The Mother of God Hodegetria (1482) in the Voznesensky monastery of the Moscow Kremlin. Bringing together the aspirations of Rublyov’s many disciples, Dionisy is the one who drew the most radical lessons from Rublyov’s style. The outlines of his figures are even clearer and closer…
- mother of pearl (iridescent organic substance)
mother-of-pearl, hard organic substance forming the iridescent inner layer of several mollusks, as well as the outer layer of pearls produced by mollusks whose shells are lined with the substance. Known for its shiny multicolored luster, mother-of-pearl has been used for decorative purposes since
- Mother of Us All, The (opera by Thomson and Stein)
The Mother of Us All, opera in two acts with libretto by American writer Gertrude Stein and music by American composer Virgil Thomson, first performed and published in 1947. The opera concerns the woman suffrage movement of 19th-century America, as exemplified in the life and work of American
- Mother Rice (Indonesian mythology)
Rice Mother: …is that of an all-nourishing Mother Rice (Me Posop), who is the guardian of crops and good fortune and whose milk is rice—which is considered to be the soul-stuff of every living thing. The third is the last sheaf of harvested rice that is ritually cut and dressed as a…
- Mother River (work by Can Xue)
Can Xue: Works of fiction and mind-stretching enchantments: …about a book club; and Mother River (2025), an English-language collection of some of her short stories and novellas.
- mother roasting (ritual)
rite of passage: Birth rites: …and Indonesia, a practice called mother roasting, which requires that the mother be placed for some days over or near a fire, appears once to have had the goal of protecting the mother from such evil influences. This practice survives today in an altered form in the rural Philippines, where…
- Mother Seton (American saint)
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton ; canonized September 14, 1975; feast day January 4) was the first native-born American to be canonized as a Roman Catholic saint. She was the founder of the Sisters of Charity, the first American religious society. She is revered as the patron saint of Catholic schools,
- mother ship (commercial fishing)
factory ship, originally, a large ship used in whaling, but now, more broadly, any ship that is equipped to process marine catches for various consumer uses. It most commonly serves as the main ship in a fleet sent to waters a great distance from home port to catch, prepare, and store fish or
- Mother Tantra (Buddhist literature)
Buddhism: Vajrayana literature: …Father Tantra (emphasizing activity), the Mother Tantra (emphasizing appreciation), and the Nondual Tantra (dealing with both aspects unitively). The original Sanskrit versions of most of these works have been lost, but their influence is noticeable in works such as Jnanasiddhi (“Attainment of Knowledge”) by the great Vajrayana teacher Indrabhuti (c.…
- Mother Teresa (Roman Catholic nun)
Mother Teresa ; canonized September 4, 2016; feast day September 5) was the founder of the Order of the Missionaries of Charity, a Roman Catholic congregation of women dedicated to the poor, particularly to the destitute of India. She was the recipient of numerous honors, including the 1979 Nobel
- Mother Teresa, Saint (Roman Catholic nun)
Mother Teresa ; canonized September 4, 2016; feast day September 5) was the founder of the Order of the Missionaries of Charity, a Roman Catholic congregation of women dedicated to the poor, particularly to the destitute of India. She was the recipient of numerous honors, including the 1979 Nobel
- Mother Tongue (work by Danh Vo)
Danh Vo: …la Ville de Paris and Mother Tongue at the Marian Goodman Gallery in New York City, which featured personal effects of former secretary of defense Robert McNamara acquired through auction. Also, as part of the Hugo Boss Prize awarded to Dahn Vo in 2012, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum hosted…
- Mother Wore Tights (film by Lang [1947])
Walter Lang: Films of the 1940s: Mother Wore Tights (1947) was another period musical for Grable, here as half of a husband-and-wife vaudeville song-and-dance team.
- Mother! (film by Aronofsky [2017])
Javier Bardem: Later roles: …in Darren Aronofsky’s psychological thriller Mother! He also costarred with Cruz in both Loving Pablo (2017), about the relationship between Pablo Escobar and journalist Virginia Vallejo, and Asghar Farhadi’s family drama Todos lo saben (2018; Everybody Knows).
- Mother’s Day (play by Storey)
David Storey: …about a failed art master; Mother’s Day (1976); Sisters (1978); Early Days (1980); and The March on Russia (1989).
- Mother’s Day (film by Marshall [2016])
Jennifer Aniston: Later films and The Morning Show: …Garry Marshall’s paean to motherhood, Mother’s Day (2016). In the animated Storks (2016), she provided the voice of a busy mother. Aniston later starred as a former beauty queen whose teenage daughter enters a pageant in the Netflix movie Dumplin’ (2018).
- Mother’s Day (holiday)
Mother’s Day, holiday in honor of mothers that is celebrated in countries throughout the world. In its modern form the holiday originated in the United States. It was established by American social activist Anna Jarvis, who sought to honor her mother. The first Mother’s Day church service was held
- Mother’s Instinct (film by Delhomme [2024])
Jessica Chastain: Later career: …appeared in the psychological thriller Mothers’ Instinct (2024) and the drama Dreams (2025).
- Mother’s Little Helper (song by the Rolling Stones)
Valium: …won it the nickname “Mother’s Little Helper” in a 1966 song of that name by the British rock band the Rolling Stones. See also diazepam.
- Mother’s Magazine (American periodical)
Abigail Goodrich Whittelsey: …edit its new periodical, the Mother’s Magazine, which first appeared in January 1833. Aimed at educating mothers about their responsibilities and potentialities, the magazine quickly proved a success. It was transferred to New York City in 1834 when the Whittelseys moved there, and she continued to edit it (with one…
- Mother’s Milk (album by Red Hot Chili Peppers)
Red Hot Chili Peppers: Their 1989 album, Mother’s Milk, became a surprise hit. The album went gold by early 1990 and was followed by the more successful Blood Sugar Sex Magik (1991), which includes the band’s first top 10 single, “Under the Bridge,” as well as the Grammy Award-winning “Give It Away.”
- Mother, The (film by Michell [2003])
Daniel Craig: Roles as a supporting actor: In The Mother (2003) Craig prowled the screen as a manipulative handyman who begins an affair with the much-older mother of his girlfriend, and in the Sylvia Plath biopic Sylvia (2003) he appeared as poet Ted Hughes. In the thriller Layer Cake (2004) he starred as…
- Mother, The (work by C̆apek)
Karel Čapek: …noble pacifist; and Matka (1938; The Mother) vindicated armed resistance to barbaric invasion.
- Mother, The (film by Caro [2023])
Jennifer Lopez: Hustlers, Super Bowl performance, and later projects: …starred in the action thriller The Mother.
- Mother, The (work by Deledda)
Grazia Deledda: title, The Mother), the tragedy of a mother who realizes her dream of her son’s becoming a priest only to see him yield to the temptations of the flesh. In these and others of her more than 40 novels, Deledda often used Sardinia’s landscape as a…
- Mother, The (work by Hába)
Alois Hába: His opera Matka (The Mother), first performed in 1931, was his crowning achievement; in it he uses nonthematic constructions characteristic of his work as a whole. Such music makes as little use as possible of repetition and variation of distinct melodies and themes. Another athematic opera, Thy Kingdom…
- mother-in-law’s tongue (plant, Dracaena trifasciata)
Sansevieria: Mother-in-law’s tongue, or snake plant (Dracaena trifasciata, formerly Sansevieria trifasciata), is a popular houseplant with yellow-striped leaves and tiny pale green scented flowers. It is sometimes sold as Sansevieria.
- mother-in-law’s tongue (plant)
dumb cane, (Dieffenbachia seguine), herbaceous plant of the arum family (Araceae), commonly grown as a houseplant. Numerous horticultural varieties have been developed, and the plant is prized for its attractive foliage and ability to tolerate low light intensities. The name mother-in-law’s tongue,
- mother-infant attachment (psychology)
attachment theory, in developmental psychology, the theory that humans are born with a need to form a close emotional bond with a caregiver and that such a bond will develop during the first six months of a child’s life if the caregiver is appropriately responsive. Developed by the British
- mother-of-pearl (silver-lustre effect)
pottery: Majolica: …a nacreous effect known as mother-of-pearl (madre perle).
- mother-of-pearl (iridescent organic substance)
mother-of-pearl, hard organic substance forming the iridescent inner layer of several mollusks, as well as the outer layer of pearls produced by mollusks whose shells are lined with the substance. Known for its shiny multicolored luster, mother-of-pearl has been used for decorative purposes since
- mother-of-pearl cloud (meteorology)
climate: Cloud types: …are known as nacreous or “mother-of-pearl” clouds because of their brilliant iridescent colours.
- mother-of-thousands (plant)
saxifrage: Its common names are strawberry begonia, strawberry geranium, and mother-of-thousands.
- Mother-Play and Nursery Songs (work compiled by Froebel)
Friedrich Froebel: …materials, including a collection of Mother-Play and Nursery Songs, with lengthy explanations of their meaning and use. This immensely popular book was translated into many foreign languages. Froebel insisted that improvement of infant education was a vital preliminary to comprehensive educational and social reform. His experiments at the Kindergarten attracted…
- motherboard (electronics)
motherboard, printed circuit board (PCB) that connects all components of a general-purpose computer. A motherboard is often referred to as the “backbone” or “spine” of a computer. A motherboard is easily identified, as it is the largest board inside a computer’s casing. In tower computers, it
- MotherFatherSon (British television series)
Richard Gere: …included the eight-episode BBC series MotherFatherSon (2019).
- motherhood (kinship)
lactation: Composition and properties of milk: The nutritional status of the mother is important throughout this period. The mother’s daily caloric intake must increase significantly in order to replenish the mother’s nutrient and energy stores. The use of drugs or smoking by the mother can adversely affect the infant; many drugs are secreted in breast milk,…
- Mothering Sunday (Christianity)
Laetare Sunday, fourth Sunday in Lent in the Western Christian Church, so called from the first word (“Rejoice”) of the introit of the liturgy. It is also known as mid-Lent Sunday, for it occurs just over halfway through Lent, and as Refreshment Sunday because it may be observed with some
- Mothering Sunday (film by Husson [2021])
Glenda Jackson: …with dementia, and the film Mothering Sunday (2021), a romantic drama set in post-World War I England. Jackson was named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1978.
- Mothering Sunday (novel by Swift)
Graham Swift: Mothering Sunday (2016) details in retrospect an affair between a domestic servant (later a writer) and the scion of a wealthy family. In Here We Are (2020), Swift focused on three performers at a seaside variety show and their love triangle.
- Motherland Calls, The (statue, Volgograd, Russia)
Battle of Stalingrad: …1967; its focal point is The Motherland Calls, a great 52-metre- (172-foot-) high statue of a winged female figure holding a sword aloft. The tip of the sword reaches 85 metres (280 feet) into the air. In the Mamayev complex is the tomb of Chuikov, who went on to lead…
- Motherland Party (political party, Turkey)
Turkey: The 1982 constitution: Instead, a third party, the Motherland Party (MP), emerged as the clear winner, gaining more than half the seats. The MP—a heterogeneous coalition of liberal, nationalist, social democratic, and Islamic groups—owed its success to the unwillingness of Turks to accept the army’s prescription for government and to the reputation of…
- Motherless Brooklyn (film by Norton [2019])
Alec Baldwin: 30 Rock, SNL, and later films: … chapter in the 1970s; and Motherless Brooklyn (2019), a crime drama adapted from the novel by Jonathan Lethem. Baldwin also lent his voice to such animated films as The Boss Baby (2017); its sequel, The Boss Baby: Family Business (2021); and Arctic Dogs (2019). In 2020 he reprised the role…
- Mothers and Sons (play by McNally)
Terrence McNally: In his play Mothers and Sons (2014), McNally examined a mother coming to terms with her late son’s homosexuality and with society’s evolving understanding of what constitutes a family. Fire and Air (2018) is about the Ballets Russes and founder Serge Diaghilev’s relationship with Vaslav Nijinsky.
- Mothers and Sons (short stories by Tóibín)
Colm Tóibín: Other writings and achievements: …as a short-story writer—collections include Mothers and Sons (2006) and The Empty Family (2010)—a playwright, a literary critic, an educator, and an editor. He published his first collection of poems, Vinegar Hill, in 2022. That same year the Arts Council of Ireland selected Tóibín as the Laureate for Irish Fiction,…
- Mothers of Invention, the (American musical group)
Tom Wilson: Work at MGM/Verve and beyond: …signed was Frank Zappa’s group, the Mothers of Invention. The band was strikingly unconventional, and its debut album, Freak Out! (1966), drew on rock and pop conventions as it satirized them, expanding rock’s musical base by incorporating a mix of studio manipulations, doo-wop melodies, shifting time signatures, rhythm-and-blues riffs, and…
- Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo (Argentine organization)
Emilio Fermin Mignone: …a founding member of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, a group of mothers of the disappeared who held weekly vigils for their children in a plaza opposite the presidential palace in Buenos Aires.
- Mothers-in-Law, The (American television series)
Eve Arden: …Eve Arden Show (1957–58) and The Mothers-in-Law (1967–69).
- Mothersbaugh, Bob (American musician)
Devo: July 28, 1948), Bob Mothersbaugh (b. August 11, 1952, Akron, Ohio), Bob Casale (b. July 14, 1952, Kent, Ohio—d. February 17, 2014), and Alan Myers (b. 1954/55—d. June 24, 2013, Los Angeles, California).
- Mothersbaugh, Mark (American musician)
Devo: The band members were Mark Mothersbaugh (b. May 18, 1950, Akron, Ohio, U.S.), Jerry Casale (b. July 28, 1948), Bob Mothersbaugh (b. August 11, 1952, Akron, Ohio), Bob Casale (b. July 14, 1952, Kent, Ohio—d. February 17, 2014), and Alan Myers (b. 1954/55—d. June 24, 2013, Los Angeles, California).
- Motherstone (work by Gee)
Maurice Gee: Children’s books: …Priests of Ferris (1984), and Motherstone (1985)—concerns the efforts of two children to defeat evil forces that threaten an imaginary world. The dystopian series comprising Salt (2007), Gool (2008), and The Limping Man (2010) was lauded for its unsparing descriptions and careful characterizations. In The Severed Land (2017) a girl…