Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

lemon

(Encyclopedia)lemon, one of the citrus fruits, from a tree (Citrus limon) of the family Rutaceae (orange family), probably native to India. A small tree (to about 15 ft/5 m tall) with thorny branches and purple-edg...

Colorado River storage project

(Encyclopedia)Colorado River storage project, a multipurpose plan, undertaken by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in 1956, to control the flow of the upper Colorado and its tributaries and to aid in the development o...

dune

(Encyclopedia)dune, mound or ridge of wind-blown sand formed in arid regions and along coasts. Dunes are common in most of the great deserts of the world. Often a dune begins to form because material is deposited b...

Sonora

(Encyclopedia)Sonora sōnōˈrä [key], state (1990 pop. 1,823,606), 70,484 sq mi (182,554 sq km), NW Mexico, on the Gulf of California, S of Arizona. Hermosillo is the capital. Sonora is mostly mountainous, with v...

sorghum

(Encyclopedia)sorghum, tall, coarse annual (Sorghum bicolor) of the family Poaceae (grass family), somewhat similar in appearance to corn (but having the grain in a panicle rather than an ear) and used for much the...

Monge, Gaspard, comte de Péluse

(Encyclopedia)Monge, Gaspard, comte de Péluse gäspärˈ môNzh kôNt də pālüzˈ [key], 1746–1818, French mathematician, physicist, and public official. He was distinguished for his geometrical research, whic...

Murphy, Frank

(Encyclopedia)Murphy, Frank, 1890–1949, American political figure, associate justice of the Supreme Court (1940–49), b. Harbor Beach, Mich. After serving as a U.S. attorney (1919–20) and as a judge of recorde...

Lagerlöf, Selma

(Encyclopedia)Lagerlöf, Selma sĕlˈmä läˈgərlöv [key], 1858–1940, Swedish novelist. Her native Värmland is the background for many of her excellent stories, which deal with peasant life. Novels include Th...

malice

(Encyclopedia)malice, in law, an intentional violation of the law of crimes or torts that injures another person. Malice need not involve a malignant spirit or the definite intent to do harm. To prove malice, it is...

Massine, Léonide

(Encyclopedia)Massine, Léonide lāônēdˈ mäsēnˈ [key], 1896–1979, Russian choreographer and ballet dancer, b. Leonid Fyodorovich Miassin. Massine attended the Imperial Ballet School, St. Petersburg, and bec...