Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

152 results found

tortoise

(Encyclopedia)tortoise tôrˈtəs [key], common name for a terrestrial turtle, especially one of the family Testudinidae. Tortoises inhabit warm regions of all continents except Australia. They have club-shaped fee...

cricket, in zoology

(Encyclopedia)cricket, common name of the slender, chirping, hopping insects forming the family Gryllidae in the order Orthoptera. Most crickets have long antennae, muscular hind legs for jumping, and two pairs of ...

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...

Brook Farm

(Encyclopedia)Brook Farm, 1841–47, an experimental farm at West Roxbury, Mass., based on cooperative living. Founded by George Ripley, a Unitarian minister, the farm was initially financed by a joint-stock compan...

Staten Island

(Encyclopedia)Staten Island (1990 pop. 378,977), 59 sq mi (160 sq km), SE N.Y., in New York Bay, SW of Manhattan, forming Richmond co. of New York state and the borough of Staten Island of New York City. It is sepa...

Sinai

(Encyclopedia)Sinai sīˈnī [key], triangular peninsula, c.23,000 sq mi (59,570 sq km), NE Egypt. It is c.230 mi (370 km) long and 150 mi (240 km) wide and extends north into a broad isthmus linking Africa and Asi...

pine

(Encyclopedia)pine, common name for members of the Pinaceae, a family of resinous woody trees with needlelike, usually evergreen leaves. The Pinaceae reproduce by means of cones (see cone) rather than flowers and m...

beach

(Encyclopedia)beach, a gently sloping zone where deposits of unconsolidated sediments are subject to wave action at the shore of an ocean or lake. Most of the sediment making up a beach is supplied by rivers or by ...

horseshoe crab

(Encyclopedia)horseshoe crab, large, primitive marine arthropod of the family Limulidae, related to the spider and scorpion and sometimes called a king crab (a name also used for the largest of the edible true crab...

Aden

(Encyclopedia)Aden äˈdən, āˈdən [key], city, SW Yemen, on the Gulf of Aden near the southern entrance to the Red Sea. It is the chief port of Yemen. Aden consists of two peninsula...