Columbia Encyclopedia

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soccer

(Encyclopedia)CE5 soccer, outdoor ball and goal game, also called association football or simply football. The first recorded game probably was that on a Shrove Tuesday in Derby, England, part of a festival to c...

culture

(Encyclopedia)culture, in anthropology, the integrated system of socially acquired values, beliefs, and rules of conduct which delimit the range of accepted behaviors in any given society. Cultural differences dist...

knight

(Encyclopedia)knight, in ancient and medieval history, a noble who did military service as a mounted warrior. As the feudal system disintegrated, knight service was with growing frequency commuted into cash pay...

Freemasonry

(Encyclopedia)Freemasonry, teachings and practices of the secret fraternal order officially known as the Free and Accepted Masons, or Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. Because of its identification with 19th-cent...

linguistics

(Encyclopedia)linguistics, scientific study of language, covering the structure (morphology and syntax; see grammar), sounds (phonology), and meaning (semantics), as well as the history of the relations of language...

Czech literature

(Encyclopedia)Czech literature, literary works that constitute part of the Czech culture and, except for some early compositions written in liturgical languages, is in the Czech language. After 1890 realism gaine...

Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus

(Encyclopedia)Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus mōtˈsärt, Ger. vôlfˈgäng ämädāˈo͝os mōˈtsärt [key], 1756–91, Austrian composer, b. Salzburg. Mozart represents one of the great peaks in the history of music. ...

German literature

(Encyclopedia)German literature, works in the German language by German, Austrian, Austro-Hungarian, and Swiss authors, as well as by writers of German in other countries. The postwar decades saw a gradual litera...

war crimes

(Encyclopedia)war crimes, in international law, violations of the laws of war (see war, laws of). Those accused have been tried by their own military and civilian courts, by those of their enemy, and by expressly e...

Canadian art and architecture

(Encyclopedia)Canadian art and architecture, the various types and styles arts and structures produced in the geographic area that now constitutes Canada. For a discussion of the art of indigenous peoples of Canada...