Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Orlando, city, United States

(Encyclopedia)Orlando ôrlănˈdō [key], city (1990 pop. 164,693), seat of Orange co., central Fla., in a lake region; inc. 1875. In a citrus fruit and farm area, it is one of the world's most visited vacation spo...

Ibn Khaldun

(Encyclopedia)Ibn Khaldun ĭˈbən khäldo͞onˈ [key], 1332–1406, Arab historian, b. Tunis. He held various offices under the rulers of Tunis and Morocco and served (1363) as ambassador of the Moorish king of Gr...

Sirk, Douglas

(Encyclopedia)Sirk, Douglas, 1900–87, German-American film director, b. Hamburg as Claus Detlef Sierck. A successful director in German theater and film, he fled the Nazi regime in 1937. Two years later he emigra...

Burns, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Burns, Robert, 1759–96, Scottish poet. Burns's art is at its best in songs such as “Flow Gently, Sweet Afton,” “My Heart's in the Highlands,” and “John Anderson My Jo.” Two collections...

mandala

(Encyclopedia)mandala mŭnˈdələ [key], [Skt.,=circular, round] a concentric diagram having spiritual and ritual significance in Hindu and Buddhist Tantrism. The mandala may have derived from the circular stupa a...

Vianney, Saint Jean-Baptiste

(Encyclopedia)Vianney, Saint Jean-Baptiste zhäN-bätēstˈ vyänāˈ [key], 1786–1859, French parish priest, popularly known as the Curé d'Ars, b. Dardilly, near Lyons. He came of poor, peasant stock and receiv...

Comenius, John Amos

(Encyclopedia)Comenius, John Amos kōmēˈnēəs [key], Czech Jan Amos Komenský, 1592–1670, Moravian churchman and educator, last bishop of the Moravian Church. Comenius advocated relating education to everyday ...

creole language

(Encyclopedia)creole language krēōlˈ [key], any language that began as a pidgin but was later adopted as the mother tongue by a people in place of the original mother tongue or tongues. Examples are the Gullah o...

Dáil Éireann

(Encyclopedia)Dáil Éireann dôl āˈrôn, dīl ârˈən [key] [Irish,=diet of Ireland], the popular representative body of the Oireachtas, or National Parliament, of the Republic of Ireland. The second, smaller c...

Ferry, Jules

(Encyclopedia)Ferry, Jules zhül fĕrēˈ [key], 1832–93, French statesman. A member of the government of national defense established after the defeat of Emperor Napoleon III in the Franco-Prussian War (1870–7...

Browse by Subject