Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Shrewsbury, city, United States

(Encyclopedia)Shrewsbury shro͞ozˈbərē [key], town (1990 pop. 24,146), Worcester co., central Mass.; inc. 1727. Plastics, furniture, candy, fire alarm systems, and textiles are manufactured. Gen. Artemas Ward wa...

Proteus, in Greek mythology

(Encyclopedia)Proteus prōˈtēəs, –tyo͞os [key], in Greek mythology, prophetic old man of the sea who tended the seals of Poseidon. He could change himself into any shape he pleased, but if he were nevertheles...

Peeblesshire

(Encyclopedia)Peeblesshire pēˈbəlz [key], former county, SE Scotland. Under the Local Government Act of 1973, Peeblesshire became (1975) part of the new Borders region (now the Scottish Borders council area). ...

terrace

(Encyclopedia)terrace, a level field built on top of a hillslope into the floor of a deep valley to improve cultivation of crops. Terracing uses the runoff from the hill to increase soil retentiveness and arability...

Menshikov, Aleksandr Danilovich, Prince

(Encyclopedia)Menshikov, Aleksandr Danilovich, Prince əlyĭksänˈdər dənyēˈləvĭch mĕnˈshĭkəf [key], 1672?–1729, Russian field marshal and statesman. Of lowly origin, he became an intimate companion of...

marquetry

(Encyclopedia)marquetry märˈkətrē [key], branch of cabinetwork in which a decorative surface of wood or other substance is glued to an object on a single plane. Unlike inlaying, in which the secondary material ...

decathlon

(Encyclopedia)decathlon dĭkăthˈlŏn [key], in modern Olympic games, a contest for men held over two days and composed of 10 track-and-field events. It consists of the long jump; the high jump; the discus throw; ...

Shapley, Lloyd Stowell

(Encyclopedia)Shapley, Lloyd Stowell shăpˈlē [key], 1923–2016, American mathematician and economist, b. Cambridge, Mass., Ph.D Princeton, 1953; son of Harlow Shapley. He worked at the RAND Corp. from 1954 to 1...

Alberti, Leone Battista

(Encyclopedia)Alberti, Leone Battista, 1404–72, Italian architect, musician, painter, and humanist, active at the papal court, Florence, Rimini, and Mantua. Alberti was the first architect to argue for the correc...

weight

(Encyclopedia)weight, measure of the force of gravity on a body (see gravitation). Since the weights of different bodies at the same location are proportional to their masses, weight is often used as a measure of m...
 

Browse by Subject