Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

338 results found

London Company

(Encyclopedia)London Company, corporation composed of stockholders residing in and about London, which, together with the Plymouth Company (see Virginia Company), was granted (1606) a charter by King James I to fou...

holography

(Encyclopedia)holography hŏlŏgˈrəfē, hō– [key], method of reproducing a three-dimensional image of an object by means of light wave patterns recorded on a photographic plate or film. Holography is sometimes...

church, building for Christian worship

(Encyclopedia)church [Gr. kuriakon=belonging to the Lord], in architecture, a building for Christian worship. The earliest churches date from the late 3d cent.; before then Christians, because of persecutions, wors...

New York City Ballet

(Encyclopedia)New York City Ballet (NYCB), one of the foremost American dance companies of the 20th and 21st cents. It was founded by Lincoln Kirstein and George Balanchine as the Ballet Society in 1946. In 1948 th...

tower

(Encyclopedia)tower, structure, the greatest dimension of which is its height. Towers have belonged to two general types. The first embodies practical uses such as defense (characteristic of the Middle Ages), to ca...

Antigua and Barbuda

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Antigua and Barbuda ăntēˈgə, –gwə, bärbo͞oˈdə, –byo͞oˈ– [key], independent Commonwealth nation (2020 est. pop. 97,928), 171 sq mi (442 sq km), We...

Irving, Washington

(Encyclopedia)Irving, Washington, 1783–1859, American author and diplomat, b. New York City. Irving was one of the first Americans to be recognized abroad as a man of letters, and he was a literary idol at home. ...

pepper

(Encyclopedia)pepper, name for the fruits of several unrelated Old and New World plants used as spices or vegetables or in medicine. True pepper is classified in the division Magnoliophyta, class Magnoliopsida,...

Federal Bureau of Investigation

(Encyclopedia)Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), division of the U.S. Dept. of Justice charged with investigating all violations of federal laws except those assigned to some other federal agency. The FBI has j...

pastoral

(Encyclopedia)pastoral, literary work in which the shepherd's life is presented in a conventionalized manner. In this convention the purity and simplicity of shepherd life is contrasted with the corruption and arti...

Browse by Subject