Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

419 results found

Friends, Religious Society of

(Encyclopedia)Friends, Religious Society of, religious body originating in England in the middle of the 17th cent. under George Fox. The members are commonly called Quakers, originally a term of derision. The org...

marriage

(Encyclopedia)marriage, socially sanctioned union that reproduces the family. In all societies the choice of partners is generally guided by rules of exogamy (the obligation to marry outside a group); some societie...

lily

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Wood lily, Lilium philadelphicum lily, common name for the Liliaceae, a plant family numbering several thousand species of as many as 300 genera, widely distributed over the earth and particul...

space exploration

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Moon mission assembly CE5 Stages in a moon mission shown counterclockwise from launching on the first day to splashdown on the ninth day. space exploration, the investigation of physical co...

whale

(Encyclopedia)whale, aquatic mammal of the order Cetacea, found in all oceans of the world. Members of this order vary greatly in size and include the largest animals that have ever lived. Cetaceans never leave the...

circulatory system

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Circulatory system circulatory system, group of organs that transport blood and the substances it carries to and from all parts of the body. The circulatory system can be considered as compose...

Northwest Territories

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Northwest Territories, territory (2001 pop. 37,360), 532,643 sq mi (1,379,028 sq km), NW Canada. The Northwest Territories lie W of Nunavut, N of lat. 60°N, and E of Yukon. Until 1999, when th...

New Brunswick, province, Canada

(Encyclopedia)CE5 New Brunswick, province (2001 pop. 729,498), 28,345 sq mi (73,433 sq km), including 519 sq mi (1,345 sq km) of water surface, E Canada. The Mi'kmaq, an indigenous people whose settlements s...

League of Nations

(Encyclopedia)League of Nations, former international organization, established by the peace treaties that ended World War I. Like its successor, the United Nations, its purpose was the promotion of international p...

Platyhelminthes

(Encyclopedia)CE5 A. Planaria, representative of the phylum Platyhelminthes B. Internal anatomy of Planaria Platyhelminthes plătˌēhĕlmĭnˈthēz [key], phylum containing about 20,000 species of soft-bodied,...