Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

bellflower, in botany

(Encyclopedia)bellflower or bluebell, name commonly used as a comprehensive term for members of the Campanulaceae, a family of chiefly herbaceous annuals or perennials of wide distribution, characteristically found...

Tooker, George

(Encyclopedia)Tooker, George (George Clair Tooker, Jr.), 1920–2011, American painter, b. Brooklyn, N.Y., grad. Harvard (A.B., 1942), studied (1943–45) Art Students League, New York City, with Reginald Marsh. Pa...

candelabrum

(Encyclopedia)candelabrum kănˌdəläˈbrəm [key], primarily a support for candles, designed in the form of a turned baluster or a tapered column, also a branched candlestick or a lampstand. Though most used and ...

Casablanca

(Encyclopedia)Casablanca kăˌsəblăngˈkə, kăˌzə–, Span. käˌsäblängˈkä [key], Arab. Dar-al-Baida, city (1994 est. pop. 2,940,623), W Morocco, on the Atlantic Ocean. The largest city and principal port...

pumice

(Encyclopedia)pumice pŭmˈĭs [key], volcanic glass formed by the solidification of lava that is permeated with gas bubbles. Usually found at the surface of a lava flow, it is colorless or light gray and has the g...

Pistoia

(Encyclopedia)Pistoia pēstôˈyä [key], city (1991 pop. 87,830), capital of Pistoia prov., Tuscany, central Italy, at the foot of the Apennines. It is an agricultural and industrial center. Manufactures include l...

silicon

(Encyclopedia)silicon, nonmetallic chemical element; symbol Si; at. no. 14; interval in which at. wt. ranges 28.084–28.086; m.p. 1,410℃; b.p. 2,355℃; sp. gr. 2.33 at 25℃; valence usually +4. Silicon is the ...

Dickinson, Peter

(Encyclopedia)Dickinson, Peter (Peter Malcolm de Brissac Dickinson), 1927–2015, b. Livingstone, Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia). The son of a civil servant, he returned to England (1935) with his family and attend...

David, Elizabeth

(Encyclopedia)David, Elizabeth, 1914–92, English food writer, b. Elizabeth Gwynne. Daughter of a wealthy Conservative MP, she cut her culinary eyeteeth in Paris while studying at the Sorbonne, then developed her ...

Chartres

(Encyclopedia)Chartres shärˈtrə [key], capital of Eure-et-Loir dept., NW France, in Orléanais, on the E...