Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

130 results found

philosophy

(Encyclopedia)philosophy [Gr.,=love of wisdom], study of the ultimate reality, causes, and principles underlying being and thinking. It has many aspects and different manifestations according to the problems involv...

Kenya

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Kenya kĕnˈyə, kēnˈ– [key], officially Republic of Kenya, republic (2015 est. pop. 47,236,000), 224,960 sq mi (582,646 sq km), E Africa. Kenya is bordered by Somalia on the east, the Indi...

physics

(Encyclopedia)physics, branch of science traditionally defined as the study of matter, energy, and the relation between them; it was called natural philosophy until the late 19th cent. and is still known by this na...

Australia

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Australia ôstrālˈyə [key], smallest continent, between the Indian and Pacific oceans. With the island state of Tasmania to the south, the continent makes up th...

papacy

(Encyclopedia)CE5 papacy pāˈpəsē [key], office of the pope, head of the Roman Catholic Church. He is pope by reason of being bishop of Rome and thus, according to Roman Catholic belief, successor in the see ...

opera

(Encyclopedia)opera, drama set to music. In the early part of the 20th cent. the foremost operatic composer was Richard Strauss. Although influenced by Wagner, he composed operas with even richer and more stunnin...

science

(Encyclopedia)science [Lat. scientia=knowledge]. For many the term science refers to the organized body of knowledge concerning the physical world, both animate and inanimate, but a proper definition would also hav...

American literature

(Encyclopedia)American literature, literature in English produced in what is now the United States of America. The years immediately after World War I brought a highly vocal rebellion against established socia...

Germany

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Germany jûrˈmənē [key], Ger. Deutschland, officially Federal Republic of Germany, ...

Browse by Subject