Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Booker, Corey Anthony

(Encyclopedia) Booker, Corey Anthony, 1969- , African American politician, b. Washington, D.C., Stanford University (B.A., 1991; M.A., 1992), Rhodes Scholar, ...

carpetbaggers

(Encyclopedia)carpetbaggers, epithet used in the South after the Civil War to describe Northerners who went to the South during Reconstruction. Although regarded as transients because of the carpetbags in which the...

Willis Tower

(Encyclopedia)Willis Tower, formerly the Sears Tower, Chicago, the second tallest building in the United States. Until the completion of the 1,483-ft (452-m) Petronas Towers (1998) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, it was...

airedale terrier

(Encyclopedia)airedale terrier ârˈdāl [key], breed of dog developed in England in the 19th cent. It is the largest of the terrier group, standing about 23 in. (58.4 cm) high at the shoulder and weighing from 40 ...

Soweto

(Encyclopedia)Soweto [acronym for south-west townships], city, now part of City of Johannesburg metropolitan municipality, Gauteng prov., NE South Africa. Located 10 mi (16 km) SW of Johannesburg, Soweto grew as bl...

stilt

(Encyclopedia)stilt, common name for some members of the family Recurvirostridae, shore birds including the avocet. Stilts, as their name implies, have the longest legs of any bird except the flamingo. They frequen...

Norwegian buhund

(Encyclopedia)Norwegian buhund bo͞oˈhŭnd [key], breed of medium-sized working dog developed in Norway. The buhund is a squarely built dog with a wedge-shaped head, erect ears, and a curled tail carried over its ...

Kuban

(Encyclopedia)Kuban ko͞obănˈ, –bänˈ, Rus. ko͞obäˈnyə [key], river, c.570 mi (920 km) long, rising in the Greater Caucasus on the western slopes of Mt. Elbrus, S European Russia, and flowing north in a wi...

pigment

(Encyclopedia)pigment, substance that imparts color to other materials. In paint, the pigment is a powdered substance which, when mixed in the liquid vehicle, imparts color to a painted surface. The pigments used i...

Randolph, Asa Philip

(Encyclopedia)Randolph, Asa Philip, 1889–1979, U.S. labor leader, b. Crescent City, Fla., attended the College of the City of New York. As a writer and editor of the black magazine The Messenger, which he helped ...
 

Browse by Subject