Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

200 results found

fundamentalism

(Encyclopedia)fundamentalism. 1 In Protestantism, religious movement that arose among conservative members of various Protestant denominations early in the 20th cent., with the object of maintaining traditional int...

sports

(Encyclopedia)sports, athletic games or tests of skill undertaken primarily for the diversion of those who take part or those who observe them. The range is great; usually, however, the term is restricted to any pl...

space station

(Encyclopedia)space station or space platform, artificial earth satellite, usually manned, that is placed in a fixed orbit and can serve as a base for astronomical observations; zero-gravity materials processing; s...

9/11

(Encyclopedia)9/11, the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, in the United States, and the associated events and impact of those attacks. The attacks, which were carried out by agents of Al Qaeda (a militant Islami...

chemical warfare

(Encyclopedia)chemical warfare, employment in war of incendiaries, poison gases, and other chemical substances. Ancient armies attacking or defending fortified cities threw burning oil and fireballs. A primitive ty...

Persian literature

(Encyclopedia)Persian literature, literary writings in the Persian language, nearly all of it written in the area traditionally known as Persia, now Iran. The 15th cent. period of the second Turko-Tartar invasi...

migration

(Encyclopedia)migration, of people, geographical movements of individuals or groups for the purpose of permanently resettling. Normal internal migration has been characterized by a population shift from rural t...

air forces

(Encyclopedia)air forces, those portions of a nation's military organization employing heavier-than-air aircraft for reconnaissance, support of ground troops, aerial combat, and bombing of enemy lines of communicat...

Trump, Donald John

(Encyclopedia)Trump, Donald John, 1946–, 45th President of the United States (2017–21), b. New York City. Prior to his election as president in 2016, Trump was a ...

Oman

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Oman ōmänˈ [key], officially Sultanate of Oman, independent sultanate (2015 est. pop. 3,287,000), c.82,000 sq mi (212,380 sq km), SE Arabian peninsula, on the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Se...