Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Bradley, James

(Encyclopedia)Bradley, James, 1693–1762, English astronomer. His discovery of the aberration of light, announced in 1728, provided an important line of evidence for the motion of the earth around the sun. In 1742...

Spencer, Anna Garlin

(Encyclopedia)Spencer, Anna Garlin, 1851–1931, American educator, feminist, and Unitarian minister, b. Attleboro, Mass. She married the Rev. William H. Spencer in 1878. She was a leader in the woman-suffrage and ...

Caerleon

(Encyclopedia)Caerleon kärlēˈən [key], town, Newport, SE Wales, on the Usk River. Militarily important ...

Camagüey, province, Cuba

(Encyclopedia)Camagüey kämägwāˈ, kämäwāˈ [key], province (1995 est. pop. 840,000), E central Cuba. Camagüey is the capital. The area is a vast prairie and is Cuba's largest province. The major economic ac...

velocity

(Encyclopedia)velocity, change in displacement with respect to time. Displacement is the vector counterpart of distance, having both magnitude and direction. Velocity is therefore also a vector quantity. The magnit...

hunting

(Encyclopedia)hunting, act of seeking, following, and killing wild animals for consumption or display. It differs from fishing in that it involves only land animals. Hunting was a necessary activity of early humans...

Czech language

(Encyclopedia)Czech language chĕk [key], in the past sometimes also called Bohemian, member of the West Slavic group of the Slavic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see Slavic languages). The off...

Norman Conquest

(Encyclopedia)Norman Conquest, period in English history following the defeat (1066) of King Harold of England by William, duke of Normandy, who became William I of England. The conquest was formerly thought to hav...

millennium

(Encyclopedia)millennium [Lat.,=1,000 years], the period of 1,000 years in which, according to some schools of Christian eschatology, Christ will reign again gloriously on earth. Belief in the millennium, based on ...

Mareshah

(Encyclopedia)Mareshah mārēˈshə [key]. 1 In the Bible, descendant of Caleb. 2 In the Bible, son of Laadan; or the name may refer to places, not persons. 3 Town, ancient Palestine, c.20 mi (32 km) WSW of Bethleh...