Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

nonjurors

(Encyclopedia)nonjurors [Lat.,=not swearing], those English and Scottish clergymen who refused to break their oath of allegiance to James II and take the oath to William III after the Glorious Revolution of 1688. T...

William of Orange

(Encyclopedia)William of Orange: see William the Silent; William II, prince of Orange; William III, king of England. ...

escape velocity

(Encyclopedia)escape velocity, the velocity a body must be given in order to escape the gravitational hold of some other larger body, e.g., the earth, moon, or sun. A body given less than the escape velocity will f...

May, Rollo

(Encyclopedia)May, Rollo, 1909–94, American psychologist, b. Ada, Ohio. Previously a theological student and Congregational minister, May received his doctorate in clinical psychology from Columbia Univ. in 1949,...

antidiuretic hormone

(Encyclopedia)antidiuretic hormone ănˌtēdīyo͞orĕtˈĭk [key], polypeptide hormone secreted by the posterior pituitary gland. Its principal action is to regulate the amount of water excreted by the kidneys. An...

Swithin, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Swithin or Swithun, Saint both: swĭᵺˈən [key], fl. 860, English bishop of Winchester. He was buried, according to his wishes, outside his church, but his relics were later removed to the new cath...

probability

(Encyclopedia)probability, in mathematics, assignment of a number as a measure of the “chance” that a given event will occur. There are certain important restrictions on such a probability measure. In any exper...

anesthesiology

(Encyclopedia)anesthesiology ănˌĭsthēˌzēŏlˈəjē [key], branch of medicine concerned primarily with procedures for rendering patients insensitive to pain, and for supporting life systems under the strains o...

lockout

(Encyclopedia)lockout, intentional closing up of a company, factory, or shop by an employer to prevent employees from working during a strike or labor dispute. The term lockout is sometimes confused with the term s...

Browse by Subject