Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

58 results found

animal husbandry

(Encyclopedia)animal husbandry, aspect of agriculture concerned with the care and breeding of domestic animals such as cattle, goats, sheep, hogs, and horses. Domestication of wild animal species was a crucial achi...

Agadez

(Encyclopedia)Agadez ägädĕsˈ [key], town, W central Niger, in the Aïr Massif. Agadez is a trade center visited by Tuareg pastoral nomads. Leather and silver handicrafts are ...

Eris, in astronomy

(Encyclopedia)Eris, in astronomy, the largest known dwarf planet. Eris, whose highly eccentric elliptical orbit ranges from 38 AU to 97 AU and is inclined more than 44°, is the largest known object of the Kuiper b...

Sedna

(Encyclopedia)Sedna, in astronomy, the most distant known large object in the solar system. With a highly eccentric elliptical orbit that ranges from an estimated 76 AU to 937 AU, Sedna also has an extremely long o...

Third World

(Encyclopedia)Third World, the technologically less advanced, or developing, nations of Asia, Africa, and Latin America, generally characterized as poor, having economies distorted by their dependence on the export...

Khartoum

(Encyclopedia)Khartoum kärto͞omˈ [key], city (1993 pop. 947,483), capital of Sudan, a port at the confluence of the Blue Nile and White Nile rivers. Khartoum is Sudan's second largest city and its administrative...

Buhari, Muhammadu

(Encyclopedia)Buhari, Muhammadu, 1942–, Nigerian military officer and political leader. A Fulani from Katsina State, he joined the army in 1961; he rose to the rank of general and participated in several coups. H...

Cameroon, country

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Cameroon kămˌəro͞onˈ [key], Fr. Cameroun, officially Republic of Cameroon, republ...

African languages

(Encyclopedia)African languages, geographic rather than linguistic classification of languages spoken on the African continent. Historically the term refers to the languages of sub-Saharan Africa, which do not belo...

Niger, country, Africa

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Niger nīˈjər, nēzhârˈ [key], officially Republic of Niger, republic (2015 est. pop. 18,045,729), 489,189 sq mi (1,267,000 sq km), W Africa. It borders on Burkina Faso and Mali in the west...

Browse by Subject