Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Great Awakening

(Encyclopedia)Great Awakening, series of religious revivals that swept over the American colonies about the middle of the 18th cent. It resulted in doctrinal changes and influenced social and political thought. In ...

Hone, Nathaniel

(Encyclopedia)Hone, Nathaniel, 1718–84, Irish miniaturist and portrait painter. Hone is noted for his smoothly painted, informal portraits of middle-class subjects. His painting The Conjurer (1775) formed part of...

heaven

(Encyclopedia)heaven, blissful upper realm or state entered after death; in Western monotheistic religions it is the place where the just see God face to face (sometimes called the beatific vision). In Judaism, hea...

Baha'i

(Encyclopedia)Baha'i bähäˈē, –hīˈ, bə– [key], religion founded by Baha Ullah (born Mirza Huseyn Ali Nuri) and promulgated by his eldest son, Abdul Baha (1844–1921). It is a doctrinal outgrowth of Babis...

Mesolithic period

(Encyclopedia)Mesolithic period mĕzˌəlĭthˈĭk [key] or Middle Stone Age, period in human development between the end of the Paleolithic period and the beginning of the Neolithic period. It began with the end o...

evening star

(Encyclopedia)evening star or morning star, planet that becomes visible in the western sky shortly after sunset or in the eastern sky shortly before sunrise. It can usually be seen in twilight, when it is too light...

Inkerman

(Encyclopedia)Inkerman ĭngˈkərmən, Rus. ēnkĭrmänˈ [key], eastern suburb of Sevastopol, S Crimea. In 1854, French and British troops defeated the Russian forces at Inkerman in the Crimean War. Nearby are cav...

Hohe Tauern

(Encyclopedia)Hohe Tauern hōˈə touˈərn [key], range of the Eastern Alps, S Austria, extending c.70 mi (110 km) E from the Italian border. It rises to 12,460 ft (3,798 m) in the Grossglockner. The Tauern railro...

Hailar

(Encyclopedia)Hailar hīˈlärˈ [key], city (1994 est. pop. 192,400), Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region., China, on the Hailar (Argun) River. It is an agricultural production center on the Chinese Eastern RR. Form...

Anastasia, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Anastasia, Saint ănəstāˈshə [key], 4th cent., Roman noblewoman, kind to the poor, martyred under Diocletian. Her cult can be traced back to 5th-century Rome. In the Roman Catholic Church, her fea...