Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Beers, Clifford Whittingham

(Encyclopedia)Beers, Clifford Whittingham, 1876–1943, American founder of the mental hygiene movement, b. New Haven, Conn., grad. Sheffield Scientific School, Yale, 1897. After the publication of A Mind That Foun...

liturgy, Christian

(Encyclopedia)liturgy, Christian [Gr. leitourgia = public duty or worship] form of public worship, particularly the form of rite or services prescribed by the various Christian churches. In the Western Church the p...

Soka Gakkai

(Encyclopedia)Soka Gakkai sōˈkä gäkˈkī [key] [Jap.,=Value Creation Society], Japan-based independent lay Buddhist movement. A theological offshoot of Nichiren Buddhism, it was founded (1930) as the Soka Kyoik...

Scouts

(Encyclopedia)Scouts or Boy Scouts, organization of boys and girls 11 to 17 years old, founded (1907) in Great Britain by Sir Robert (later Lord) Baden-Powell and originally for boys only; since the late 20th cent....

taxis

(Encyclopedia)taxis tăkˈsĭs [key], movement of animals either toward or away from a stimulus, such as light (phototaxis), heat (thermotaxis), chemicals (chemotaxis), gravity (geotaxis), and touch (thigmotaxis). ...

Brookwood Labor College

(Encyclopedia)Brookwood Labor College, at Katonah, N.Y.; founded in 1921 in association with the American Federation of Labor as an experimental college. Brookwood was an attempt to create an alternative to traditi...

St. John, John Pierce

(Encyclopedia)St. John, John Pierce, 1833–1916, American political reformer, b. Brookville, Ind. He traveled in the West and in South America, fought in the Union army in the Civil War, and after 1869 practiced l...

diaphragm

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Diaphragm diaphragm dīˈəfrămˌ [key], term used to describe any of several large muscles, found in humans and other mammals, which separate two adjacent regions of the body. The most commo...

coeducation

(Encyclopedia)coeducation, instruction of both sexes in the same institution. The economic benefits gained from joint classes and the need to secure equality for women in industrial, professional, and political act...

Gregory, Dick

(Encyclopedia)Gregory, Dick (Richard Claxton Gregory), 1932–2017, African-American civil-rights activist and comedian, b. St. Louis, Mo. A biting satirist who used the struggle for civil rights and other topical ...

Browse by Subject