Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Bond, Julian

(Encyclopedia)Bond, Julian (Horace Julian Bond), 1940–2015, U.S. civil-rights leader, b. Nashville, Tenn. As a student at Morehouse College, he participated in sit-ins at segregated Atlanta restaurants. He was a ...

Boucher, François

(Encyclopedia)Boucher, François fräNswäˈ bo͞oshāˈ [key], 1703–70, French painter. Boucher's art embodied the spirit of his time; it was elegant, frivolous, and artificial. He studied briefly with François...

Steichen, Edward

(Encyclopedia)Steichen, Edward stīˈkən [key], 1879–1973, American photographer, b. Luxembourg, reared in Hancock, Mich. Steichen is credited with the transformation of photography into an art form. At 16, whil...

conducting

(Encyclopedia)conducting, in music, the art of unifying the efforts of a number of musicians simultaneously engaged in musical performance. In the Middle Ages and Renaissance the conductor was primarily a time beat...

acceleration

(Encyclopedia)acceleration, change in the velocity of a body with respect to time. Since velocity is a vector quantity, involving both magnitude and direction, acceleration is also a vector. In order to produce an ...

uncertainty principle

(Encyclopedia)uncertainty principle, physical principle, enunciated by Werner Heisenberg in 1927, that places an absolute, theoretical limit on the combined accuracy of certain pairs of simultaneous, related measur...

Allobroges

(Encyclopedia)Allobroges əlŏˈbrəjēz [key], Celtic tribe in Gaul, inhabiting later Dauphiné and Savoy. They were conquered (121 b.c.) by Quintus Fabius Maximus, who was called Allobrogicus in commemoration of ...

Ozias

(Encyclopedia)Ozias ōzīˈəs [key] [Gr.,=Heb. Uzziah], in the Bible. 1 Same as Uzziah (1.) 2 Ruler of Bethulia at the time of Judith. ...

Barabbas

(Encyclopedia)Barabbas bərăbˈəs [key] [Aram.,=son of the father], bandit held in jail at the time of Jesus' arrest. Pontius Pilate, who, according to the Gospels, annually released a prisoner at Passover, offer...

Pur

(Encyclopedia)Pur pûr [key] [Heb.,=lot], in the Bible, lot cast by Haman to determine the time for the murder of the Jews. See Purim. ...