Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

(Encyclopedia)Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), officially the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection, independent U.S. government agency responsible for most of the federal oversight and enforcement of...

analogy

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Analogy in bird and insect wings analogy, in biology, the similarities in function, but differences in evolutionary origin, of body structures in different organisms. For example, the wing of ...

Pyramus and Thisbe

(Encyclopedia)Pyramus and Thisbe pĭrˈəməs, thĭzˈbē [key], in classical mythology, youth and maiden of Babylon, whose parents opposed their marriage. Their homes adjoined, and they conversed through a crevice...

racquetball

(Encyclopedia)racquetball, sport played indoors by two or four players, combining elements of court handball and such racket games as squash racquets. It is played on a standard handball court 40 ft (12.2 m) long, ...

Ordos

(Encyclopedia)Ordos ôrˈdōs [key], Mandarin Erdesi, sandy desert plateau region, c.35,000 sq mi (90,650 sq km), Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region, N China; almost encircled by the great northern bend of the Huang...

Huxtable, Ada Louise

(Encyclopedia)Huxtable, Ada Louise hŭkˈstəbəl [key], 1921–2013, American architecture critic, b. New York City as Ada Louise Landman, grad. Hunter College (1941). As architecture critic for the New York Times...

kiln

(Encyclopedia)kiln kĭl, kĭln [key], furnace for firing pottery and enamels, for making brick, charcoal, lime, and cement, for roasting ores, and for drying various substances (e.g., lumber, chemicals). Kilns may ...

Stegner, Wallace

(Encyclopedia)Stegner, Wallace (Wallace Earle Stegner), 1909–93, American writer, b. Lake Mills, Iowa, grad. Univ. of Utah (1930). He wrote perceptively of the American West in short stories, e.g., The Woman on t...

Buell, Abel

(Encyclopedia)Buell, Abel byo͞oˈəl [key], 1742–1822, American silversmith, engraver, and type founder, b. Killingworth, Conn. He engraved a number of maps, including maps of the Florida coast and a large wall ...

peritoneum

(Encyclopedia)peritoneum pĕrətənēˈəm [key], multilayered membrane which lines the abdominal cavity, and supports and covers the organs within it. The part of the membrane that lines the abdominal cavity is ca...

Browse by Subject