Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Standardbred horse

(Encyclopedia)Standardbred horse or trotter, American breed of light horse developed especially for harness, or sulky, racing. Of Thoroughbred ancestry, it is similar in appearance to a thoroughbred but has shorter...

Stewart, William Morris

(Encyclopedia)Stewart, William Morris, 1827–1909, American lawyer and political leader, b. Wayne co., N.Y. After migrating to California in 1850 he engaged in mining and held several state elective offices. He mo...

bandicoot

(Encyclopedia)bandicoot, small marsupial mammal native to Australia and nearby islands. There are 19 species in eight genera. Bandicoots have long, pointed, shrewlike faces; gray or brown fur; and long, bushy, ratl...

hare

(Encyclopedia)hare, name for certain herbivorous mammals of the family Leporidae, which also includes the rabbit and pika. The name is applied especially to species of the genus Lepus, sometimes called the true har...

lemming

(Encyclopedia)lemming, name for several species of mouselike rodents related to the voles. All live in arctic or northern regions, inhabiting tundra or open meadows. They frequently nest in underground burrows, par...

Bermuda

(Encyclopedia)Bermuda bûrmyo͞oˈdə [key], British dependency (2015 est. pop. 70,000), 21 sq mi (53 sq km), comprising some 150 coral rocks, islets, and islands (of which some 20 are inhabited), in the Atlantic O...

dextrin

(Encyclopedia)dextrin, any one of a number of carbohydrates having the same general formula as starch but a smaller and less complex molecule. They are polysaccharides and are produced as intermediate products in t...

dolomite

(Encyclopedia)dolomite dōˈləmītˌ, dŏlˈə– [key]. 1 Mineral, calcium magnesium carbonate, CaMg (CO3)2. It is commonly crystalline and is white, gray, brown, or reddish in color with a vitreous to pearly lus...

coquilla nut

(Encyclopedia)coquilla nut kōkēˈyə, kōkēlˈyə [key] [Span.,=little coconut], fruit of a Brazilian palm (Attalea funifera), closely related to the coconut palm. Its fruit, 3 to 4 in. (7.6–10.2 cm) long, is ...

Cooper, Leon Neil

(Encyclopedia)Cooper, Leon Neil, 1930–, American neuroscientist, b. New York City, Ph.D. Columbia, 1954. Cooper was a researcher at the Univ. of Illinois from 1955 to 1957 and at Ohio State Univ. from 1957 to 195...

Browse by Subject