Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

waterspout

(Encyclopedia)waterspout, tornado occurring at sea or over inland waters. The characteristic funnel-shaped cloud is formed at the base of a cumulus-type cloud and extends downward to the water surface, where it pic...

Cape Lookout National Seashore

(Encyclopedia)Cape Lookout National Seashore: see National Parks and Monuments (table)national parks and monuments (table). ...

catgut

(Encyclopedia)catgut or gut, cord made from the intestines of various animals (especially sheep and horses, but not cats). The membrane is chemically treated, and slender strands are woven together into cords of gr...

Borgerhout

(Encyclopedia)Borgerhout bôrˈkhərhout [key], town, Antwerp prov., N Belgium, on the Albert Canal, an industrial ...

Boucicaut

(Encyclopedia)Boucicaut bo͞osēkōˈ [key], c.1366–1421, marshal of France and crusader against the Ottoman Turks, whose real name was Jean III le Meingre. Captured by Ottoman Sultan Beyazid I at Nikopol (1396),...

Boucicaut Master

(Encyclopedia)Boucicaut Master bo͞osēkōˈ [key], active c.1375–1400, Franco-Flemish manuscript illuminator. The master was named for his greatest work, The Hours of the Maréchal de Boucicaut (Musée Jacquemar...

Neagh, Lough

(Encyclopedia)Neagh, Lough lŏkh nā [key], lake, 153 sq mi (396 sq km), 18 mi (29 km) long and 11 mi (18 km) wide, central Northern Ireland. This shallow lake is the largest freshwater body in the British Isles. F...

Neanderthal man

(Encyclopedia)Neanderthal man –tôlˌ [key], a species of Homo, the genus to which contemporary humans belong, known as H. neandertalensis after Neanderthal (now Neandertal), Germany, the valley where the first s...

Nearchus

(Encyclopedia)Nearchus nēärˈkəs [key], fl. 324 b.c., Macedonian general, b. Crete; friend of Alexander the Great. In 325 b.c., Alexander, about to leave India, had a fleet built in the Indus to transport part o...

near-death experience

(Encyclopedia)near-death experience, phenomenon reported by some people who have been clinically dead, then returned to life. Descriptions of the experience differ slightly in detail from person to person, but usua...