Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

garnet

(Encyclopedia)garnet, name applied to a group of isomorphic minerals crystallizing in the cubic system. They are used chiefly as gems and as abrasives (as in garnet paper). The garnets are double silicates; one of ...

Rhode Island Red chicken

(Encyclopedia)Rhode Island Red chicken, American breed of poultry, no longer raised commercially, but still maintained for use in breeding programs. See Red Rock chicken. ...

Jupiter, in astronomy

(Encyclopedia)Jupiter jo͞oˈpətər [key], in astronomy, 5th planet from the sun and largest planet of the solar system. Astronomers have discovered 79 satellites orbiting Jupiter, but five of those, small sate...

tornado

(Encyclopedia)tornado, dark, funnel-shaped cloud containing violently rotating air that develops below a heavy cumulonimbus cloud mass and extends toward the earth. The funnel twists about, rises and falls, and whe...

Duroc swine

(Encyclopedia)Duroc swine dŭˈrŏk, do͞oˈ– [key], breed originating during the 1800s in the NE United States from crosses among a number of red strains existing in that region. One of the most numerous breeds,...

Irish terrier

(Encyclopedia)Irish terrier, a breed of hardy working terrier developed in the British Isles and believed to be one of the oldest terriers. It stands about 18 in. (46 cm) high at the shoulder and weighs from 25 to ...

alizarin

(Encyclopedia)alizarin əlĭzˈərĭn [key], or 1,2-dihydroxyanthraquinone, mordant vegetable dye obtained originally from the root of the madder plant (Rubia tinctorum), in which it occurs as a glucoside. The term...

Conrad the Red

(Encyclopedia)Conrad the Red, d. 955, duke of Lotharingia (Lorraine; 944–53). A Franconian adherent of the German king Otto I (later Holy Roman emperor), he was made duke of Lotharingia and married Otto's daughte...

Little Red River

(Encyclopedia)Little Red River, 105 mi (169 km) long, rising in the Boston Mts., NW Ark., and flowing SE to the White River. Greers Dam and reservoir (completed 1964) provide flood control and hydroelectric power. ...

Eric the Red

(Encyclopedia)Eric the Red, fl. 10th cent., Norse chieftain, discoverer and colonizer of Greenland according to the sagas. He left (c.950) Norway with his exiled father and settled in Iceland. A feud resulting in m...
 

Browse by Subject