Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

bean

(Encyclopedia)bean, name applied to the seeds of leguminous trees and shrubs and to various leguminous plants of the family Leguminosae (pulse family) with edible seeds or seed pods (legumes). The genera and specie...

Gaines, Edmund Pendleton

(Encyclopedia)Gaines, Edmund Pendleton, 1777–1849, U.S. army officer, b. Culpeper co., Va.; brother of George Strother Gaines. He spent his boyhood in Tennessee and at the age of 22 joined the U.S. army. He surve...

Pentecostalism

(Encyclopedia)Pentecostalism, worldwide 20th–21st-century Christian movement that emphasizes the experience of Spirit baptism, generally evidenced by speaking in tongues (glossolalia). The name derives from Pente...

cypress, in botany

(Encyclopedia)cypress, common name for members of the Cupressaceae, a widely distributed family of coniferous shrubs and trees, several yielding valuable timber. The major genera are Juniperus (juniper), Thuja (arb...

Chiapas

(Encyclopedia)Chiapas chēäˈpäs [key], state, 28,732 sq mi (74,416 sq km), SE Mexico, on the Pacific Ocean ...

Hyperboreans

(Encyclopedia)Hyperboreans hīˌpərbôrˈēənz, –bôrēˈənz [key], in Greek mythology, people dwelling in a state of perfect bliss in the Far North who were Apollo worshipers. ...

shell money

(Encyclopedia)shell money, medium of exchange consisting of shells, the most widely distributed type of ancient currency. Shells are particularly useful as money because they may be strung in long strips of proport...

Prudhoe Bay

(Encyclopedia)Prudhoe Bay, inlet of the Beaufort Sea and Arctic Ocean, N Alaska, in the Alaska North Slope region, east of the Colville River delta. In 1968 one of the largest oil reserves in North America was disc...

pink

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Deptford pink, Dianthus armeria pink, common name for some members of the Caryophyllaceae, a family of small herbs found chiefly in north temperate zones (especially the Mediterranean area) bu...

Ettwein, John

(Encyclopedia)Ettwein, John ĕtˈvīn [key], 1721–1802, German-American churchman, leader and bishop of the Moravian Church in the United States. He came to America from Germany in 1754 as a missionary. In his mi...