Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

213 results found

Metropolitan Opera Company

(Encyclopedia)Metropolitan Opera Company, term used in referring collectively to the organizations that have produced opera at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York City. The original house, at West 39th Street an...

Lutheranism

(Encyclopedia)Lutheranism, branch of Protestantism that arose as a result of the Reformation, whose religious faith is based on the principles of Martin Luther, although he opposed such a designation. When Luther r...

Americas, antiquity and prehistory of the

(Encyclopedia)Americas, antiquity and prehistory of the, study of the origins of the aboriginal peoples of the Americas. Archaeologists believe humans had entered and occupied much of the Americas by the end of the...

African languages

(Encyclopedia)African languages, geographic rather than linguistic classification of languages spoken on the African continent. Historically the term refers to the languages of sub-Saharan Africa, which do not belo...

cold war

(Encyclopedia)cold war, term used to describe the shifting struggle for power and prestige between the Western powers and the Communist bloc from the end of World War II until 1989. Of worldwide proportions, the co...

archaeology

(Encyclopedia)archaeology ärkēŏlˈəjē [key] [Gr.,=study of beginnings], a branch of anthropology that seeks to document and explain continuity and change and similarities and differences among human cultures. ...

classification

(Encyclopedia)CE5 classification, in biology, the systematic categorization of organisms into a coherent scheme. The original purpose of biological classification, or systematics, was to organize the vast number...

secret police

(Encyclopedia)secret police, policing organization operating in secrecy for the political purposes of its government, often with terroristic procedures. Many states, including Chile, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Romania,...

light

(Encyclopedia)light, visible electromagnetic radiation. Of the entire electromagnetic spectrum, the human eye is sensitive to only a tiny part, the part that is called light. The wavelengths of visible light range ...

radio

(Encyclopedia)CE5 A. AM transmitter B. AM receiver radio, transmission or reception of electromagnetic radiation in the radio frequency range. The term is commonly applied also to the equipment used, especially...

Browse by Subject