Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

plant

(Encyclopedia)plant, any organism of the plant kingdom, as opposed to one of the animal kingdom or of the kingdoms Fungi, Protista, or Monera in the five-kingdom system of classification. (A more recent system, sug...

English units of measurement

(Encyclopedia)English units of measurement, principal system of weights and measures used in a few nations, the only major industrial one being the United States. It actually consists of two related systems—the U...

Allison, James Patrick

(Encyclopedia)Allison, James Patrick, 1948–, American immunologist, b. Alice, Tex., Ph.D. Univ. of Texas, Austin, 1973. Allison was a researcher at the Univ. of Texas System Cancer Center in Houston from 1977 to ...

eurythmics

(Encyclopedia)eurythmics or eurhythmics both: yo͝orĭᵺˈmĭks [key], harmonious bodily movement, especially as expressed according to the system of Émile Jaques-Dalcroze, who developed eurythmics (1903) at the ...

Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway

(Encyclopedia)Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, railroad system in much of the United States (except the Northeast) and in S Canada, created in 1995 from the merger of Burlington Northern Inc. and the Santa Fe ...

turnpike

(Encyclopedia)turnpike, road paid for partly or wholly by fees collected from travelers at tollgates. It derives its name from the hinged bar that prevented passage through such a gate until the toll was paid. See ...

Eaton, Dorman Bridgman

(Encyclopedia)Eaton, Dorman Bridgman, 1823–99, American reformer, b. Hardwick, Vt. He was a law partner of William Kent in New York City. His major interests were reform in municipal administration and abolition ...

Delaware Aqueduct

(Encyclopedia)Delaware Aqueduct dĕlˈəwâr, –wər [key], SE N.Y., 85 mi (137 km) long, carrying water from the Rondout Reservoir, Sullivan co., SE into the New York City water system at the Hillview Reservoir, ...

Hopkins, Samuel

(Encyclopedia)Hopkins, Samuel, 1721–1803, American clergyman and theologian, b. Waterbury, Conn., grad. Yale, 1741. He was a leading disciple of Jonathan Edwards, whose theology was the foundation for his own sys...

Hill, Sir Rowland

(Encyclopedia)Hill, Sir Rowland, 1795–1879, English educator, inventor, and postal reformer. He introduced the system of self-government in his school at Hazelwood in Birmingham. In his Plans for the Government a...