Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Hatteras, Cape

(Encyclopedia)Hatteras, Cape hătˈərəs [key], promontory on Hatteras Island, a low, sandy, barrier bar between the Atlantic Ocean and Pamlico Sound, E N.C. Called the Graveyard of the Atlantic, the cape experien...

fence

(Encyclopedia)fence [short for defense], humanly erected barrier between two divisions of land, used to mark a legal or other boundary, to keep animals or people in or out, and sometimes as an ornament. In newly se...

lionfish

(Encyclopedia)lionfish, common name for a genus (Pterois) of the family Scorpaenidae (see rockfish), comprising venomous subtropical marine fish native to the South Pacific, the Indian Ocean, and the Red Sea. Nativ...

Namur, city, Belgium

(Encyclopedia)Namur, Du. Namen, commune (1991 pop. 103,443), capital of Namur prov., S central Belgium, at the confluence of the Meuse and Sambre rivers. It is a commercial and industrial center as well as a rail j...

Karakorum, mountain range, Kashmir

(Encyclopedia)Karakorum or Karakoram, mountain range, extending c.300 mi (480 km), between the Indus and Yarkant rivers, N Kashmir, S central Asia; SE extension of the Hindu Kush. It covers disputed territory, held...

Baumgartner, Felix

(Encyclopedia)Baumgartner, Felix, 1969–, Austrian skydiver and daredevil. He made his first skydive at age 16, and turned to BASE jumping [Buildings, Antennas, Spans (bridges), and Earth (mountains)] in the 1990s...

Northwest Passage

(Encyclopedia)Northwest Passage, water routes through the Arctic Archipelago, N Canada, and along the northern coast of Alaska between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. Even though the explorers of the 16th cent. de...

Atlantic City

(Encyclopedia)Atlantic City, city (2020 pop. 39,497), Atlantic co., SE N.J., an Atlantic resort and convention center; settled c.1790, inc. 1854. Situated on Absecon Island, a barrier island 10 mi (16.1...

Banksy

(Encyclopedia)Banksy, pseud. of an English graffiti artist, c.1974–, probably b. Bristol. He painted on walls, bridges, and the like in Bristol and London in the 1990s before he began to use (c.2000) stencils and...

Ghats

(Encyclopedia)Ghats gŏts [key] [Hindi,=steps], two mountain ranges of S India, paralleling the coasts of the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal and forming two sides of the Deccan plateau. Anai Mudi (8,841 ft/2,695...

Browse by Subject