Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

450 results found

adolescence

(Encyclopedia)adolescence, time of life from onset of puberty to full adulthood. The exact period of adolescence, which varies from person to person, falls approximately between the ages 12 and 20 and encompasses b...

Blatch, Harriet Stanton

(Encyclopedia)Blatch, Harriet Stanton (Harriet Eaton Stanton Blatch), 1856–1940, American labor reformer and woman suffrage leader, b. Seneca Falls, N.Y. A daughter of suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton and abolit...

Mekong

(Encyclopedia)Mekong māˈkŏng, mēˈ– [key], Chinese Lancang, one of the great rivers of SE Asia, c.2,600 mi (4,180 km) long. From its marshy source (definitively identified in 1994) on the Rup-sa Pass in the h...

Newfoundland and Labrador, province, Canada

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Newfoundland and Labrador nyo͞oˈfənlənd, nyo͞ofənlăndˈ; lăbˈrədôrˌ [key], province (2001 pop. 512,930), 156,185 sq mi (404,519 sq km), E Canada. The province consists of the island...

Levine, James

(Encyclopedia)Levine, James Lawrence, 1943–2021, American conductor, b. Cincinnati, Ohio. . Levine’s parents were both performers; his father had been a bandleade...

Livingstone, David

(Encyclopedia)Livingstone, David lĭvˈĭngstən, –stōnˌ [key], 1813–73, Scottish missionary and explorer in Africa, the first European to cross the African continent. From 1841 to 1852, while a medical missi...

Kitaj, R. B.

(Encyclopedia)Kitaj, R. B. (Ronald Brooks Kitaj) kĭtīˈ [key], 1932–2007, American painter, b. Chagrin Falls, Ohio. In 1958 he moved to London, where he attended the Ruskin School, Oxford, and the Royal College...

Hudson River school

(Encyclopedia)Hudson River school, group of American landscape painters, working from 1825 to 1875. The 19th-century romantic movements of England, Germany, and France were introduced to the United States by such w...

iridium

(Encyclopedia)iridium ĭrĭdˈēəm [key], metallic chemical element; symbol Ir; at. no. 77; at. wt. 192.217; m.p. about 2,410℃; b.p. about 4,130℃; sp. gr. 22.55 at 20℃; valence +3 or +4. Iridium is a very ha...

Irish language

(Encyclopedia)Irish language, also called Irish Gaelic and Erse, member of the Goidelic group of the Celtic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see Celtic languages). The history of Irish as a liter...