Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

287 results found

recorder

(Encyclopedia)recorder, musical wind instrument of the flute family, made of wood, varying in length, and having an inverted conical bore (largest end near the mouthpiece). Its tone is produced by an air stream aga...

Snake, river, United States

(Encyclopedia)Snake, river, 1,038 mi (1,670 km) long, NW United States, the chief tributary of the Columbia; once called the Lewis River. The Snake rises in NW Wyoming, in Yellowstone National Park, flows through J...

transmigration of souls

(Encyclopedia)transmigration of souls or metempsychosis mətĕmˌsəkōˈsĭs [key] [Gr.,=change of soul], a belief common to many cultures, in which the soul passes from one body to another, either human, animal, ...

Morristown

(Encyclopedia)Morristown. 1 Town (1990 pop. 16,189), seat of Morris co., N N.J., on the Whippany River; settled c.1710, inc. 1865. Although chiefly residential, it has diverse manufactures, including electronic pro...

parachute

(Encyclopedia)parachute, umbrellalike device designed to retard the descent of a falling body by creating drag as it passes through the air. The development of modern aircraft has led to many experiments in the aer...

Lispector, Clarice

(Encyclopedia)Lispector, Clarice klârˈĭs lēspĕkˈtər [key], 1920–77, Brazilian author, b. i...

Mexico, Gulf of

(Encyclopedia)Mexico, Gulf of, arm of the Atlantic Ocean, c.700,000 sq mi (1,813,000 sq km), SE North America. The Gulf stretches more than 1,100 mi (1,770 km) from west to east and c.800 mi (1,290 km) from north t...

Klondike

(Encyclopedia)Klondike klŏnˈdīk [key], region of Yukon, NW Canada, just E of the Alaska border. It lies around Klondike River, a small stream that enters the Yukon River from the east at Dawson. The discovery in...

Schuller, Gunther Alexander

(Encyclopedia)Schuller, Gunther Alexander, 1925–2015, American composer and conductor, b. Queens, N.Y. He studied French horn and flute, becoming principal hornist with the Cincinnati Symphony (1943–45) and Met...

Goytisolo, Juan

(Encyclopedia)Goytisolo, Juan (Juan Goytisolo Gay) hwän goitēsōˈlō [key], 1931–2017, Spanish writer, b. Barcelona. Goytisolo is considered among the foremost novelists who wrote in Spanish in the late 20th c...

Browse by Subject