Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

336 results found

Harding, Warren Gamaliel

(Encyclopedia)Harding, Warren Gamaliel gəmāˈlēəl [key], 1865–1923, 29th President of the United States (1921–23), b. Blooming Grove (now Corsica), Ohio. After study (1879–82) at Ohio Central College, he ...

Fuller, Margaret

(Encyclopedia)Fuller, Margaret, 1810–50, American writer, lecturer, and public intellectual, b. Cambridgeport (now part of Cambridge), Mass. She was one of the most influential personalities in the American liter...

witchcraft

(Encyclopedia)witchcraft, a form of sorcery, or the magical manipulation of nature for self-aggrandizement, or for the benefit or harm of a client. This manipulation often involves the use of spirit-helpers, or fam...

Toronto

(Encyclopedia)Toronto tərŏnˈtō [key], city (1998 est pop. 2,400,000), provincial capital, S Ont., Canada, on Lake Ontario. Toronto is the largest city in Canada and since the 1970s has been one of the fastest-c...

Pseudepigrapha

(Encyclopedia)Pseudepigrapha so͞oˌdĭpĭˈgrəfə [key] [Gr.,=things falsely ascribed], a collection of early Jewish and some Jewish-Christian writings composed between c.200 b.c. and c.a.d. 200, not found in the...

Denmark

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Denmark dĕnˈmärk [key], Dan. Danmark, officially Kingdom of Denmark, kingdom (2015 est. pop. 5,689,000), 16,629 sq mi (43,069 sq km), N Europe. It borders on Germany in the south, the North ...

Austrian Succession, War of the

(Encyclopedia)Austrian Succession, War of the, 1740–48, general European war. In 1744 Frederick II, fearing the rising power of Austria, started the Second Silesian War by invading Bohemia; he was soon expell...

tap dance

(Encyclopedia)tap dance, theatrical dance form in which the dancer, wearing shoes with metal heel and toe taps, beats out complex, syncopated rhythms on the floor. After a slump in popularity in the 1960s, tap ...

neurosis

(Encyclopedia)neurosis, in psychiatry, a broad category of psychological disturbance, encompassing various mild forms of mental disorder. Until fairly recently, the term neurosis was broadly employed in contrast wi...

symbolic logic

(Encyclopedia)symbolic logic or mathematical logic, formalized system of deductive logic, employing abstract symbols for the various aspects of natural language. Symbolic logic draws on the concepts and techniques ...

Browse by Subject