Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

senate, Roman

(Encyclopedia)senate, Roman, governing council of the Roman republic. It was the outgrowth of the council of the kings. By the 3d cent. b.c. the senate was a group of 300 men with a high degree of political, legisl...

Stanislaus II

(Encyclopedia)Stanislaus II, 1732–98, last king of Poland (1764–95). He was born Stanislaus Augustus Poniatowski. His mother was a member of the powerful Czartoryski family, which furthered Stanislaus's career....

ghost town

(Encyclopedia)ghost town, term for any once flourishing American community that has been abandoned, generally for economic reasons. While most of the towns have little or no population, they often contain old build...

Darién, region, Panama

(Encyclopedia)Darién dârˌēĕnˈ, Span. däryānˈ [key], eastern part of Panama between the Gulf of Darién on the east and the Gulf of San Miguel on the west. Darién province, heavily forested and sparsely po...

Malabar Coast

(Encyclopedia)Malabar Coast mălˈəbär [key], SW coast of India stretching c.525 mi (845 km) from Goa to the southern tip of the peninsula at Kanniyakumri (Cape Comorin), primarily in Kerala state and the norther...

Pherecrates

(Encyclopedia)Pherecrates fərĕkˈrətēz [key], fl. c.437 b.c., inventive and highly esteemed Greek poet of the Old Comedy. Fragments and titles of 15 of his plays are extant. ...

Huntington's disease

(Encyclopedia)Huntington's disease, hereditary, acute disturbance of the central nervous system usually beginning in middle age and characterized by involuntary muscular movements and progressive intellectual deter...

Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve

(Encyclopedia)Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve, N Alaska. Located N of the Arctic Circle, the park (7,523,898 acres/3,046,113 hectares) and adjacent preserve (948,629 acres/384,060 hectares) make up t...

Formulas for Various Areas (table)

(Encyclopedia)Formulas for Various Areas 1 The abbreviations used are: b = base (length of any side of a plane figure); a = altitude (perpendicular distance from the farthest point of the figure to t...

Transylvania Company

(Encyclopedia)Transylvania Company, association formed to exploit and colonize the area now comprising much of Kentucky and Tennessee. Organized first (Aug., 1774) as the Louisa Company, it was reorganized (Jan., 1...