Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

240 results found

papaya

(Encyclopedia)papaya pəpīˈə [key], soft-stemmed tree (Carica papaya) of tropical America resembling a palm with a crown of palmately lobed leaves. It is cultivated for its melonlike yellow fruits eaten raw or c...

Rogers, Adrian Pierce

(Encyclopedia)Rogers, Adrian Pierce, 1931–2005, American Southern Baptist clergyman, b. West Palm Beach, Fla. After deciding to enter the ministry while in college, he attended the New Orleans Baptist Theological...

Port Harcourt

(Encyclopedia)Port Harcourt härˈkərt, –kôrt [key], city (1991 est. pop. 362,000), SE Nigeria, a deepwater port on the Bonny River in the Niger delta. It is an industrial and commercial center where steel and ...

More, Hannah

(Encyclopedia)More, Hannah, 1745–1833, English author and social reformer. She was educated, and later taught, at her sisters' school for girls in Bristol. At the age of 22 she became engaged to William Turner, a...

Thomson, James , 1834–82, Scottish poet and essayist

(Encyclopedia)Thomson, James, 1834–82, Scottish poet and essayist. He is remembered for his darkly pessimistic poem The City of Dreadful Night. He was raised in an orphan asylum and became (1851) an army teacher ...

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park

(Encyclopedia)Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, c.639 sq mi (1,655 sq km), S Calif., occupying most of E San Diego co. and neighboring portions of Riverside and Imperial cos.; est. 1933. Part of the Colorado Desert, ...

Kivu, region, Congo

(Encyclopedia)Kivu kēˈvo͞o, kēvo͞oˈ [key], region, c.89,000 sq mi (230,510 sq km), E Congo (Kinshasa). It borders on Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and Lake Tanganyika on the east. Kivu is divided into three provin...

palmitin

(Encyclopedia)palmitin pălˈmətĭn [key], fat that is the triglyceride of palmitic acid, CH3(CH2)14CO2H, i.e., the tripalmitate ester of glycerol. It is a white crystalline solid at ordinary temperatures, insolub...

Ouidah

(Encyclopedia)Ouidah hwīˈdə [key], town (1992 pop. 32,474), S Benin, a port on the Gulf of Guinea. It was the capital of a small state founded about the 16th cent. From the early 17th cent., Portuguese, French, ...

Moody, Dwight Lyman

(Encyclopedia)Moody, Dwight Lyman, 1837–99, American evangelist, b. Northfield, Mass. He became successful in business in Chicago, where he settled in 1856. His activities there as a Sunday-school teacher and sup...