Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

canvas

(Encyclopedia)canvas, strong, coarse cloth of cotton, flax, hemp, or other fibers, early used as sailcloth. Left in its natural color, bleached, or dyed, it has a wide variety of uses, as for game, duffel, sport, m...

souari

(Encyclopedia)souari or swarri nut, name for tropical trees of the genus Caryocar, abundant in N South America. The fatty “nuts,” botanically drupe fruits, somewhat resemble Brazil nuts but are much larger and ...

sneeze

(Encyclopedia)sneeze, involuntary violent expiration of air through the nose and mouth. It results from stimulation of the nervous system in the nose, causing sudden contraction of the muscles of expiration. The st...

bed and breakfast

(Encyclopedia)bed and breakfast (B&B or BnB), small business that offers guests rooms and breakfast, usually in a private home or apartment. In a B&B, service and meal preparation is typically provided by t...

sprain

(Encyclopedia)sprain, stretching or wrenching of the ligaments and tendons of a joint, often with rupture of the tissues but without dislocation. Sprains occur most commonly at the ankle, knee, or wrist joints, cau...

contour

(Encyclopedia)contour or contour line, line on a topographic map connecting points of equal elevation above or below mean sea level. It is thus a kind of isopleth, or line of equal quantity. Contour lines are drawn...

rhythm, biological

(Encyclopedia)rhythm, biological, or biorhythm, cyclic pattern of physiological changes or changes in activity in living organisms, most often synchronized with daily, monthly, or annual cyclical changes in the env...

dimension, in mathematics

(Encyclopedia)dimension, in mathematics, number of parameters or coordinates required locally to describe points in a mathematical object (usually geometric in character). For example, the space we inhabit is three...

compulsive gambling

(Encyclopedia)compulsive gambling or pathological gambling, a psychological disorder characterized by a persistent inability to resist the impulse to gamble. The disorder is progressive and typically results in dif...

analog-to-digital conversion

(Encyclopedia)analog-to-digital or A/D conversion, the process of changing continuously varying data, such as voltage, current, or shaft rotation, into discrete digital quantities that represent the magnitude of th...