Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

noddy

(Encyclopedia)noddy, tropical tern including five species in the genus Anous. The name noddy is said to derive from their easy familiarity with man. Noddies are web-footed seabirds with long wings (though shorter t...

spotted lanternfly

(Encyclopedia)spotted lanternfly, common name for a planthopper, Lycorma delicatula, an insect that is native to China, India, and Vietnam, and is an introduced agricultural pest in Korea and the United States. The...

browntail moth

(Encyclopedia)browntail moth, common name for a moth, Nygmia phaeorrhoea, of the tussock moth family. It is a serious pest of forest and shade trees, especially oak. It was introduced from Europe about the same tim...

whale shark

(Encyclopedia)whale shark, large, plankton-eating shark, Rhincodon typus, found in all tropical seas of the world. Whale sharks are the largest fish in the world. A female typically reaches about 46 ft (14 m) in le...

Kensico Reservoir

(Encyclopedia)Kensico Reservoir kĕnˈzĭkō [key], c.4 sq mi (10 sq km), SE N.Y., N of White Plains, formed by Kensico Dam (completed 1915) on the Bronx River. A principal unit in the New York City water supply sy...

Mezen

(Encyclopedia)Mezen myĕˈzĭnyə [key], river, c.565 mi (910 km) long, rising in the Timan Hills, Komi Republic, NE European Russia, and flowing NW into the Mezen Bay of the White Sea. Its lower course is navigabl...

Hastings, Thomas, American architect

(Encyclopedia)Hastings, Thomas, 1860–1929, American architect, b. New York City, grad. École des Beaux-Arts, Paris. He worked in the office of McKim, Mead, and White, New York City, and in 1886 commenced practic...

Gyula

(Encyclopedia)Gyula dyo͝oˈlŏ [key], town (1991 est. pop. 34,154), SE Hungary, on the White Koros River near the Romanian border. It is an agricultural center and has a fine château and a 14th-century castle. Fe...

cobaltite

(Encyclopedia)cobaltite kōˈbôltīt, kōbôlˈtīt [key], opaque, silver-white, sometimes reddish or grayish mineral of the pyrite group, a compound of cobalt, arsenic, and sulfur, CoAsS. It occurs in crystals of...

chiaroscuro

(Encyclopedia)chiaroscuro kyärōsko͞oˈrō [key] [Ital.,=light and dark], term once applied to an early method of printing woodcuts from several blocks and also to works in black and white or monotone. Today it i...