Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

458 results found

Kentucky, state, United States

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Kentucky kəntŭkˈē, kĭn– [key], state of the SE central United States. It is bordered by West Virginia and Virginia (E); Tennessee (S); the Mississippi River, across which lies Missouri (...

telescope

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Mirror arrangements for a reflecting telescope telescope, traditionally, a system of lenses, mirrors, or both, used to gather light from a distant object and form an image of it. Traditional o...

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 ...

jazz

(Encyclopedia)jazz, the most significant form of musical expression of African-American culture and arguably the most outstanding contribution the United States has made to the art of music. ...

Judaism

(Encyclopedia)Judaism jo͞oˈdəĭzˌəm, jo͞oˈdē– [key], the religious beliefs and practices and the way of life of the Jews. The term itself was first used by Hellenized Jews to describe their religious prac...

astronomy

(Encyclopedia)astronomy, branch of science that studies the motions and natures of celestial bodies, such as planets, stars, and galaxies; more generally, the study of matter and energy in the universe at large. ...

Russian literature

(Encyclopedia)Russian literature, literary works mainly produced in the historic area of Russia, written in its earliest days in Church Slavonic and after the 17th cent. in the Russian language. During World War ...

Washington, state, United States

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Washington, state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. It is bordered by Idaho (E); Oregon, with the Columbia River marking much of the boundary (S); the Pacific Ocean (W); and the Ca...

physics

(Encyclopedia)physics, branch of science traditionally defined as the study of matter, energy, and the relation between them; it was called natural philosophy until the late 19th cent. and is still known by this na...

mathematics

(Encyclopedia)mathematics, deductive study of numbers, geometry, and various abstract constructs, or structures; the latter often “abstract” the features common to several models derived from the empirical, or ...

Browse by Subject