Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

154 results found

dream

(Encyclopedia)dream, mental activity associated with the rapid-eye-movement (REM) period of sleep. It is commonly made up of a number of visual images, scenes or thoughts expressed in terms of seeing rather than in...

tracer

(Encyclopedia)tracer, an identifiable substance used to follow the course of a physical, chemical, or biological process. In chemistry the ideal tracer has the same chemical properties as the molecule it replaces a...

Biedermeier

(Encyclopedia)Biedermeier bēˈdərmīər [key], name applied, at first in a joking spirit, to a period of European culture and a style of furniture, decoration, and art originating in Germany early in the 19th cen...

Brno

(Encyclopedia)Brno bûrˈnô [key], Ger. Brünn, city, SE Czech Republic, at the confluence of the Svratka ...

expressionism

(Encyclopedia)expressionism, term used to describe works of art and literature in which the representation of reality is distorted to communicate an inner vision. The expressionist transforms nature rather than imi...

Adenauer, Konrad

(Encyclopedia)Adenauer, Konrad kônˈrät äˈdənouˌər [key], 1876–1967, West German chancellor. A lawyer and a member of the Catholic Center party, he was lord mayor of Cologne and a member of the provincial ...

diary

(Encyclopedia)diary [Lat.,=day], a daily record of events and observations. As distinguished from memoir (an account of events placed in perspective by the author long after they have occurred), the diary derives i...

Kandinsky, Wassily

(Encyclopedia)Kandinsky, Wassily or Vasily kăndĭnˈskē, Rus. vəsēˈlyē kəndyēnˈskē [key], 1866–1944, Russian abstract painter and theorist. Usually regarded as the originator of abstract art, Kandinsky ...

Lévi-Strauss, Claude

(Encyclopedia)Lévi-Strauss, Claude klōd lāˈvē-strous [key], 1908–2009, French anthropologist, b. Brussels, Belgium, Ph.D Univ. of Paris, 1948. He carried out research in Brazil from 1935 to 1939. From 1942 t...

Weill, Kurt

(Encyclopedia)Weill, Kurt ko͝ortˈ vīl [key], 1900–1950, German-American composer, b. Dessau, studied with Humperdinck and Busoni in Berlin. He first became known with the production of two short satirical surr...

Browse by Subject