Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

guardian and ward

(Encyclopedia)guardian and ward, in law. A guardian is someone who by appointment or by relationship has the care of a person or that person's property, or both. The protected individual, known as the ward, is cons...

population I and II

(Encyclopedia)population I and II, in astronomy: see stellar populations. ...

White Huns

(Encyclopedia)White Huns or Hephthalites hĕfˈthəlītsˌ [key], people of obscure origins, possibly of Tibetan or Turkish stock. They were called Ephthalites by the Greeks, and Hunas by the Indians. There is no d...

Aholah and Aholibah

(Encyclopedia)Aholah əhōˈlə [key], in the Bible, the sisters in an allegory on Israel's idolatry. ...

ratchet and pawl

(Encyclopedia)ratchet and pawl, mechanical device that permits motion in one direction only. The ratchet is usually a wheel with slanting teeth. The pawl is a lever tangential to the wheel with one end resting on t...

Bozez and Seneh

(Encyclopedia)Bozez sēˈnə, –nĕ [key], two cliffs at the entrance to the ravine of Michmash (now the Wadi Suweinet); they are mentioned in the First Book of Samuel. ...

baroque, in art and architecture

(Encyclopedia)baroque bərōkˈ [key], in art and architecture, a style developed in Europe, England, and the Americas during the 17th and early 18th cent. The baroque style is characterized by an emphasis on unity...

Masai

(Encyclopedia)Masai or Maasai mäsīˈ [key], a largely nomadic pastoral people of E Africa, chiefly in Kenya and Tanzania. Cattle and sheep form the basis of the economy that they have maintained in resistance to ...

socialist realism

(Encyclopedia)socialist realism, Soviet artistic and literary doctrine. The role of literature and art in Soviet society was redefined in 1932 when the newly created Union of Soviet Writers proclaimed socialist rea...

government

(Encyclopedia)government, system of social control under which the right to make laws, and the right to enforce them, is vested in a particular group in society. There are many classifications of government. Accord...