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Law·rence (lôrəns, lŏr-)
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1. A city of northeast Kansas on the Kansas River east-southeast of Topeka. Founded in 1854, it was the scene of a proslavery raid (1856) that sparked retaliatory killings by the abolitionist John Brown.
2. A city of northeast Massachusetts on the Merrimack River north-northeast of Lowell. Laid out as an industrial town in 1845, it grew as a textile center.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 
Lawrence, Sir Thomas 1769-1830.
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British painter remembered for his portrait series (1814-1818) of the leaders of the alliance against Napoleon.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 
Lawrence, Gertrude 1898-1952.
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British actress remembered for her performances in the plays Private Lives (1930) and Lady in the Dark (1941) as well as the musical The King and I (1951).

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 
Lawrence, Ernest Orlando 1901-1958.
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American physicist. He won a 1939 Nobel Prize for the development of the cyclotron.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 
Lawrence, D(avid) H(erbert) 1885-1930.
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British writer whose fiction concerns the struggle for human fulfillment within a dehumanizing industrialized society. His novels include Sons and Lovers (1913), Women in Love (1920), and Lady Chatterley's Lover (1928). He also wrote poetry and literary criticism.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 
Lawrence, T(homas) E(dward) Known as "Lawrence of Arabia." 1888-1935.
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British soldier, adventurer, and writer who led the Arab revolt against the Turks (1916-1918) and later wrote an account of his adventures, The Seven Pillars of Wisdom (1926).

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

    Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

    Indo-European Roots

    Semitic Roots

    The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.