Inhabiting or living in water or vegetation that exists in water.

To live in conditions in which there is neither an excess nor a deficiency of water.

An organism that lives in, or inhabits, ground-water areas.

Inhabiting places that are experiencing periodic inundations of fresh water.

A cold, saline water mass that sinks below the 12,000-foot level in the South Atlantic and flows north from the Antarctic land mass, sometimes reaching latitudes of 45 degrees north; characterized by temperatures around minus four degrees centigrade and salinity of about 34.66 parts per thousand.

The relatively small intermediate water masses of the North Pacific and North Atlantic, respectively located north of a line between the Aleutian Islands and Japan and north of a line between Iceland and Labrador.

Seen on a highway sign.

1. A variable rheostat whose electrodes are submerged to a conducting liquid.
2. A rheostat which consists of a tank of conducting liquid in which electrodes are placed, and resistance is varied by changing the distance between the electrodes, the depth of immersion of the electrodes, or the resistivity of the solution.

Moisture that adheres to soil particles and does not evaporate at ordinary temperatures.

1. A severe gangrenous inflammation of the mouth or genitals, usually occurring in children who are malnourished or otherwise debilitated or after an infectious disease.
2. A gangrenous stomatitis, usually beginning in the mucous membrane of the corner of the mouth or cheek, and then progressing fairly rapidly to involve the entire thickness of the lips or cheek (or both), with conspicuous necrosis and complete sloughing of tissue; usually observed in poorly nourished children and debilitated adults; especially, in lower socioeconomic groups, and frequently preceded by another disease, e.g., kala azar, dysentery, or scarlet fever.

A similar process (noma pudendi, noma vulvae) may also involve the labia majora (larger (major) outside pair of labia (lips) of the vulva (the female external genitalia).

Several organisms are usually found in the necrotic material, but fusiform bacilli, Borrelia organisms, staphylococci, and anaerobic streptococci are most frequently observed.

3. Etymology: from Medical Latin, which came from Greek nome, "a feeding, a spreading"; literally, "pasturage, food from pasturage".

Noma, a disease that is spreading in certain parts of the world

Some strains of noma starts as a sore in the mouth, eats through facial muscles, cartilage, and skin, leaving a wound that often gapes open to the bone.

It is a gangrenous infection that thrives primarily where poor sanitation and malnutrition are common.

More than 100,000 children worldwide have noma; the rate in sub-Saharan Africa is as high as one in 1,000 a year. Most victims are children, and over 70 percent die from the disease.

Although no one knows exactly what causes noma, the disease is treatable if caught in time; and preventable with proper nutrition and health care.

Water held in close contact by clay particles which is less available to soil organisms than capillary water.

Living in the open surface waters of the sea.

The demineralization of saline or brackish water.

Water in the zone of aeration immediately below the ground surface: Soil water is the water that is retained from sinking into the earth, and can be used by plants and other organisms.

Living in stagnant (still, motionless, inactive) water; such as certain birds, etc.

1. A room or booth containing a toilet and often a washbowl; a toilet.
2. An enclosed room or compartment containing a toilet bowl fitted with a mechanism for flushing.

For a special discussion about the WC or W.C., see this page about "A Harmless W.C. Joke by Jack Paar".

The contraction of one or more skeletal muscles caused by immersion into water.