Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

gross national product

(Encyclopedia)gross national product (GNP), in economics, a quantitative measure of a nation's total economic activity, generally assessed yearly or quarterly. In estimating the GNP, only the final value of a produ...

Banach, Stefan

(Encyclopedia)Banach, Stefan stĕˈfän bäˈnäkh [key], 1892–1945, Polish mathematician. He was educated at the Institute of Technology in Lviv; his doctoral thesis laid the foundations of modern functional ana...

Yakima, indigenous people of North America

(Encyclopedia)Yakima yăkˈəmô, –mə [key], indigenous people of North America whose language belongs to the Sahaptin-Chinook branch of the Penutian linguistic stock (see Native American languages). In the earl...

Derbent

(Encyclopedia)Derbent dyĭrbyĕntˈ [key], city, SE European Russia, in Dagestan, on the Caspian Sea. It st...

Gilbert Islands

(Encyclopedia)Gilbert Islands, group of 16 islands, central Pacific, one of the island groups that form the Republic of Kiribati. The group includes Tarawa, Butaritari, Makin, Little Makin, Marakei, Abaiang, Maiana...

Tennessee Valley Authority

(Encyclopedia)Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), independent U.S. government corporate agency, created in 1933 by act of Congress; it is responsible for the integrated development of the Tennessee River basin. The h...

Bertillon system

(Encyclopedia)Bertillon system bərtĭlˈyən [key], first scientific method of criminal identification, developed by the French criminologist Alphonse Bertillon (1853–1914). The system, based on the classificati...

Watauga Association

(Encyclopedia)Watauga Association, government (1772–75) formed by settlers along the Watauga River in present E Tennessee. Virginians made the first settlements in 1769, and after the collapse of the Regulator mo...

easement

(Encyclopedia)easement, in law, the right to use the land of another for a specified purpose, as distinguished from the right to possess that land. If the easement benefits the holder personally and is not associat...

Civilian Conservation Corps

(Encyclopedia)Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), established in 1933 by the U.S. Congress as a measure of the New Deal program. The CCC provided work and vocational training for unemployed single young men through ...

Browse by Subject