Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Yellowknife

(Encyclopedia)Yellowknife, city (1991 pop. 15,179), capital of the Northwest Territories, Canada, on the north shore of Great Slave Lake, at the mouth of the Yellowknife River. It is the largest city in the Northwe...

Lagos, city, Nigeria

(Encyclopedia)Lagos lāˈgŏs, läˈgôs [key], city (1991 est. pop. 1,274,000), SW Nigeria, on the Gulf of Guinea. It comprises the island of Lagos and three former neighboring islands (now connected by landfill t...

Manu

(Encyclopedia)Manu mŭˈno͞o [key], semilegendary Hindu lawgiver. Traditionally ascribed to him are the Laws of Manu, best known of the Sanskrit smriti texts (see Sanskrit literature). They were compiled, probably...

civil commitment

(Encyclopedia)civil commitment or involuntary commitment, process by which a court determines whether or not to order an individual to receive treatment or care or be confined. A person may be committed after a hea...

Hopkins, Samuel

(Encyclopedia)Hopkins, Samuel, 1721–1803, American clergyman and theologian, b. Waterbury, Conn., grad. Yale, 1741. He was a leading disciple of Jonathan Edwards, whose theology was the foundation for his own sys...

Antara

(Encyclopedia)Antara äntärˈä [key], fl. 600, Arab warrior and poet, celebrated in his own day as a hero because he rose from slave birth to be a tribal chief. His poetry is represented by one poem in the Mualla...

Douala

(Encyclopedia)Douala do͞o-äˈlə [key], city, Cameroon, on the Wuori River estuary. Cameroon's largest city ...

Dunn, Oscar James

(Encyclopedia)Dunn, Oscar James, c.1825–71, African-American politician, lieutenant governor of Louisiana (1868–71), b. New Orleans. A former slave, he fought for the Union and joined the Republican party (1863...

Clapham Sect

(Encyclopedia)Clapham Sect, group of English social reformers, active c.1790–1830, so named because their activities centered on the home in Clapham, London, of Henry Thornton and William Wilberforce. Most of the...

Enna

(Encyclopedia)Enna ānˈnä [key], town, capital of Enna prov., central Sicily, Italy. It is an agricultura...