Key terms & definitions

A carbohydrate polymer made from many sugar monomers joined in a chain.

A carbohydrate made from many sugar units joined together. Starch is a polysaccharide.

The capacity of a media product or sign to communicate more than one meaning.

The repeated use of conjunctions such as ‘and’ to connect words or phrases, often creating emphasis or a sense of accumulation.

Belief in and worship of many gods.

Belief in and worship of many gods.

Fat containing fatty acids with more than one carbon–carbon double bond. Sunflower oil and oily fish are useful dietary sources.

A container holding sweet-smelling substances, carried to protect against supposed disease-causing bad air.

The sacred boundary of the city of Rome, whose extension could symbolise the expansion of Roman power.

A ceremonial procession; at the City Dionysia it formed part of the public worship of Dionysus.

A ceremonial procession; at the City Dionysia it accompanied the wooden image of Dionysus to his sanctuary.

An area of the brainstem where increased neuronal activity generates random signals during REM sleep, according to Activation Synthesis Theory.

The demands issued by the Pilgrimage of Grace rebels, including restoration of monasteries, obedience to the Pope, dismissal of Cromwell and repeal of the Statute of Uses.

A broad alliance of Indigenous peoples’ resistance to British forts, policies and colonial expansion, with its main phase in 1763–64.

The chief religious official responsible for supervising religious rules and advising on correct observance.

The chief Roman priest, who supervised the Vestal Virgins.

Roman priests responsible for overseeing religious rules and ceremonies.

Members of a Roman priestly college responsible for supervising religious practice, including the religious calendar and rules governing burial.

The exercise of the Catholic Church’s teaching authority by the Pope.

The Roman governor of Judea who questioned Jesus and authorised his execution.

A system in which partners combine their income and both have access to shared household money.

The system through which local authorities provided assistance to poor people, financed by local taxation.

The system of public assistance for people in poverty in England and Wales, reorganised by the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834.

A law passed in 1834 that reorganised poor relief in England and Wales, enabling restrictions on assistance outside workhouses and strengthening reliance on harsh workhouse provision.

A campaign planned by Martin Luther King Jr. and continued by Ralph Abernathy and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1968, bringing poor people from different communities together to demand action against poverty.

A compulsory local tax used to finance assistance for the poor.

Money, goods or other assistance provided to people in poverty.

A device that draws small invertebrates into a container through a tube; a filter prevents them reaching the user's mouth.

A suction device with a collecting chamber and two tubes, used to collect small invertebrates.

Post Office Protocol: rules for downloading received emails from an email server to a client, normally removing them from the server.