Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

hickory, in botany

(Encyclopedia)hickory, any plant of the genus Carya of the family Juglandaceae (walnut family); deciduous nut-bearing trees native to E North America and south to Central America except for a few species found in S...

Kim Il Sung

(Encyclopedia)Kim Il Sung kĭm jông ĭl [key], 1941?–2011, was groomed as his successor. Active in the Korean Workers' party leadership from 1964, Kim Jong Il became secretary of its central committee in 1973. I...

Sierra Leone

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Sierra Leone sēĕrˈə lēōˈnē, lēōnˈ; sērˈə lēōn [key], officially Republic of Sierra Leone, republic (2015 est. pop. 5,879,000), 27,699 sq mi (71,740 sq km), W Africa. It is borde...

camel

(Encyclopedia)camel, ruminant mammal of the family Camelidae. The family consists of three genera, the true camels of Asia (genus Camelus); the wild guanaco and the domesticated alpaca and llama, all of South Ameri...

Rockefeller Center

(Encyclopedia)Rockefeller Center, complex of buildings in central Manhattan, New York City, between 48th and 51st streets and Fifth Ave. and the Ave. of the Americas (Sixth Ave.). The project was sponsored by John ...

Prairie Pothole Region

(Encyclopedia)Prairie Pothole Region, large geographic area of central North America consisting of grass-covered wetlands. Stretching northwest from N Iowa through SW Minnesota, E South Dakota, E and N North Dakota...

Auckland

(Encyclopedia)Auckland ôkˈlənd [key], city (2021 pop. 1,630,092), N North Island, New Zealand. It is situated on an isthmus and is the largest urban region and chief port of the coun...

Zapotec

(Encyclopedia)Zapotec zäˈpətĕk, säˈ– [key], indigenous people of Mexico, primarily in S Oaxaca and on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Little is known of the origin of the Zapotec. Unlike most native peoples of ...

Caracas

(Encyclopedia)Caracas kərăˈkəs, kəräˈ–, Span. käräˈkäs ...

Morley, Sylvanus Griswold

(Encyclopedia)Morley, Sylvanus Griswold, 1883–1948, American archaeologist, b. Chester, Pa., grad. Harvard, 1908. A specialist in Middle American archaeology and Mayan heiroglyphs, Morley did fieldwork (1909–14...