Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Slavs

(Encyclopedia)Slavs slävz, slăvz [key], the largest ethnic and linguistic group of peoples in Europe belonging to the Indo-European linguistic family. It is estimated that the Slavs number over 300 million in the...

Czech literature

(Encyclopedia)Czech literature, literary works that constitute part of the Czech culture and, except for some early compositions written in liturgical languages, is in the Czech language. After 1890 realism gaine...

Oxford, University of

(Encyclopedia)Oxford, University of, at Oxford, England, one of the oldest English-language universities in the world. The university was a leading center of learning throughout the Middle Ages; such scholars as Ro...

Ukrainian literature

(Encyclopedia)Ukrainian literature, literary writings in the Ukrainian language. Kievan Church Slavonic texts of the 11th cent. and W Ukrainian texts of the 13th cent. show Ukrainian linguistic features, which pred...

Wends

(Encyclopedia)Wends or Sorbs, Slavic people (numbering about 60,000) of Brandenburg and Saxony, E Germany, in Lusatia. They speak Lusatian (also known as Sorbic or Wendish), a West Slavic language with two main dia...

Hinckley, Gordon Bitner

(Encyclopedia)Hinckley, Gordon Bitner, 1910–2008, leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons; see Latter-day Saints, Church of Jesus Christ of), b. Salt Lake City, grad. Univ. of Utah. He ...

Kievan Rus

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Kievan Rus (c.1000) Kievan Rus kēˈĕfən [key], medieval state of the Eastern Slavs. It was the earliest predecessor of modern Ukraine and Russia. Flourishing from the 10th to the 13th cent....

Presbyterianism

(Encyclopedia)Presbyterianism, form of Christian church organization based on administration by a hierarchy of courts composed of clerical and lay presbyters. Holding a position between episcopacy (government by bi...

Browse by Subject