Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Dandie Dinmont terrier

(Encyclopedia)Dandie Dinmont terrier dănˈdē dĭnˈmŏnt [key], breed of hardy, long-bodied terrier developed in England and Scotland and first recorded as a distinct type in the very early 18th cent. It stands f...

Changsha

(Encyclopedia)Changsha chängˈshäˈ [key], city (1994 est. pop. 1,198,100), capital of Hunan prov., S China, on the Xiang River. The name, which means “long sandbank,” is derived from an island in the river. ...

isopod

(Encyclopedia)isopod īˈsəpŏdˌ [key], common name for crustaceans belonging to the order Isopoda and in the same subclass as lobsters and crayfish. Isopods are characterized by their flattened bodies, lack of a...

ibis

(Encyclopedia)ibis īˈbĭs [key], common name for wading birds with long, slender, decurved bills, found in the warmer regions of both hemispheres. The body is usually about 2 ft (61 cm) long. Most ibises nest in ...

Fukuyama, Francis

(Encyclopedia)Fukuyama, Francis, 1952–, American political scientist, b. Chicago, grad. Cornell (B.A., 1974), Harvard (Ph.D., 1981). He has been a political scientist at the RAND Corporation (1979–80, 1983–89...

Mount, William Sidney

(Encyclopedia)Mount, William Sidney, 1807–68, American genre and portrait painter, b. Setauket, N.Y. His childhood was spent at Stony Brook, Long Island, the scene of many of his pictures. At 17 he was apprentice...

Neisse

(Encyclopedia)Neisse lo͞osāˈshən [key], Czech Lužická Nisa, Pol. Nysa Łużycka, c.140 mi (230 km) long, rises in the Sudetes, N central Czech Republic, and flows generally N to the Oder River near Guben, Ger...

mastodon

(Encyclopedia)mastodon măsˈtədŏnˌ [key], name for a number of prehistoric mammals of the extinct genus Mammut, from which modern elephants are believed to have developed. The earliest known forms lived in the ...

kinkajou

(Encyclopedia)kinkajou kĭngˈkəjo͞oˌ [key], nocturnal, arboreal mammal, Potos flavus, found from Mexico to Brazil and related to the raccoon. It has a long, slender body with soft, short, woolly hair of any of ...

backswimmer

(Encyclopedia)backswimmer, common name for water bugs of the cosmopolitan family Notonectidae, so named because they swim upside down, usually near the surface of the water. They have oval bodies and long, oarlike ...