a county of Ireland, in the province of Ulster, 46 miles in length and 37 in breadth; bounded on the north by Londonderry, on the east by Armagh and Lough Neagh, on the south by Fermanagh, and on the west by Donegal. It is a rough and rugged country, but tolerably fruitful; contains 12,683 houses, 30 parishes, 4 baronies, 4 boroughs, and formerly sent members to the Irish parliament. The principal town is Dungannon.

U, V.

U, or u, the 20th letter and 5th vowel of our alphabet, is formed in the voice by a round configuration of the lips, and a greater extrusion of the under one than in forming the letter o, and the tongue is also more camellated. The sound is short in curst, must, tun, tub; but is lengthened by a final e, as in tune, tube, &c. In some words it is rather acute than long; as in brute, flute, lute, &c. It is mostly long in polysyllables; as in union, curious, &c.; but in some words it is obscure, as in nature, venture, &c. This letter in the form of V or v, is properly a consonant, and as such is placed before all the vowels; as in vacant, venal, vibrates, &c. Though the letters v and u had always two sounds, they had only the form v till the beginning of the fourth century, when the other form was introduced, the inconvenience of expressing two different sounds by the same letter having been observed long before. In numerals V stands for five; and with a dash added at top, thus V, it signifies 5000.

In abbreviations, amongst the Romans, V. A. stood for veterani assignati; V. B. viro bono; V. B. A. viri boni arbitrati; V. B. F. vir bono fidei; V. C. vir consularis; V. C. C. F. vule, conjux charissime, feliciter; V. D. D. voto dedicatur; V. G. verbi gratia; Vir. Ve. virgo vestalis; VI. videbatur; V. N. quinto nonarum.