Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Lasker, Albert Davis

(Encyclopedia)Lasker, Albert Davis, 1880–1952, American advertising executive, sometimes called the founder of modern advertising, b. Freiburg, Germany. He came to the United States as an infant and entered adver...

Price, Richard

(Encyclopedia)Price, Richard, 1723–91, English nonconformist minister and philosopher. His philosophical importance rests on his ethical discussion, Review of the Principal Questions and Difficulties in Morals (1...

cotyledon

(Encyclopedia)cotyledon kŏtˌəlēdˈən [key], in botany, a leaf of the embryo of a seed. The embryos of flowering plants, or angiosperms, usually have either one cotyledon (the monocots) or two (the dicots). See...

Popocatépetl

(Encyclopedia)Popocatépetl pōpəkătˈəpĕtəl, pōpōˌkätāˈpətəl [key] [Nahuatl,=smoking mountain], volcano, 17,887 ft (5,452 m) high, in the Cordillera de Anáhuac, central Mexico, on the Puebla-Mexico s...

Orizaba, city, Mexico

(Encyclopedia)Orizaba ōrēsäˈbä [key], city (1990 pop. 114,216), Veracruz state, E central Mexico. It is the commercial center of a prosperous bean and sugar growing region. The development of water power has s...

Banks, Sir Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Banks, Sir Joseph, 1743–1820, British naturalist and patron of the sciences. He accompanied Capt. James Cook on his voyage around the world and made large collections of biological specimens, most o...

flame

(Encyclopedia)flame, phenomenon associated with the chemical reaction of a gas that has been heated above its kindling temperature with some other gas, usually atmospheric oxygen (see combustion). The heat and ligh...

de Candolle, Augustin Pyrame

(Encyclopedia)de Candolle, Augustin Pyrame də käNdōlˈ [key], 1778–1841, Swiss botanist. Considered the most important Swiss botanist of his era, de Candolle wrote on a wide variety of botanical topics, from m...

trefoil

(Encyclopedia)trefoil trēˈfoil [key] [O.Fr.,=three-leaf], in botany, name for several plants, chiefly of the pulse family, having trifoliate leaves. Best known of the trefoils is clover. The bird's-foot trefoil (...

Vesuvius

(Encyclopedia)Vesuvius vəso͞oˈvēəs [key], Ital. Vesuvio, active volcano, S Italy, on the eastern shore of the Bay of Naples, SE of Naples. The only other active volcano on the European mainland is the Campi Fl...

Browse by Subject