Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Lae

(Encyclopedia)Lae läˈē, lī [key], town (1990 pop. 88,172), Papua New Guinea, on NE New Guinea island, at the head of the Huon Gulf. Lae is an important administrative and commercial center. Founded in 1927 to s...

Presque Isle

(Encyclopedia)Presque Isle prĕsk īl [key] [Fr.,=peninsula], city (1990 pop. 10,550), Aroostook co., NE Maine, inc. 1859. It is the trade, tourist, and shipping center of the Aroostook valley. During World War II ...

petrolatum

(Encyclopedia)petrolatum pĕtrəlāˈtəm [key], colorless to yellowish-white hydrocarbon mixture obtained by fractional distillation of petroleum. In its jellylike semisolid form (known as petroleum jelly and also...

Portales

(Encyclopedia)Portales pôrtălˈĭs [key], city (1990 pop. 10,690), seat of Roosevelt co., E N.Mex., near the Tex. line; inc. 1910. It is the trade and processing center of an agricultural area. There is food proc...

Tatar Strait

(Encyclopedia)Tatar Strait, narrow body of water, c.350 mi (560 km) long and from 5 to 80 mi (8–129 km) wide, S Russian Far East, between the island of Sakhalin and the Asian mainland. It connects the Sea of Japa...

Telford, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Telford, Thomas, 1757–1834, Scottish civil engineer. He greatly improved road building in England and Scotland. He introduced the use of a base of large stones surfaced with compacted layers of smal...

Usuman dan Fodio

(Encyclopedia)Usuman dan Fodio 1754–1817. Fulani religious and political leader. Beginning as an itinerant Muslim missionary in northern Nigeria, he gained a large following for his syncretic visions, establishin...

Teramo

(Encyclopedia)Teramo tĕˈrämō [key], city (1991 pop. 51,756), capital of Teramo prov., Abruzzi, central Italy. It is an agricultural and growing industrial center, with an increasingly diversified manufacturing ...

Thames , river, United States

(Encyclopedia)Thames thāmz [key], river, c.15 mi (25 km) long, formed by the confluence of the Yantic and Shetucket rivers at Norwich, E Conn., and flowing south to Long Island Sound at New London. Primarily a tid...

sciatica

(Encyclopedia)sciatica sīătˈĭkə [key], severe pain in the leg along the sciatic nerve and its branches. It may be caused by injury or pressure to the base of the nerve in the lower back, or by metabolic, toxic...