Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

raft

(Encyclopedia)raft, floating platform of wood, cork, or air-inflated rubber for conveying goods or people. Originally, several logs, bound together by vines, strips of animal skin, and later rope, formed a flat sur...

life preserver

(Encyclopedia)life preserver, a personal flotation device (PFD) intended to keep the wearer afloat, particularly in case of shipwreck. A Type I PFD will keep even unconscious people afloat in a face–up position; ...

Bathurst Island, Australia

(Encyclopedia)Bathurst Island, c.1,000 sq mi (2,590 sq km), Northern Territory, N Australia, near Melville Island, between the Timor and Arafura seas. The island is a reservation owned by the Tiwi people. ...

Corrigan, Mairead

(Encyclopedia)Corrigan, Mairead (Mairead Corrigan Maguire) moiˈrə kôrˈĭgən [key], 1944–, Northern Irish peace activist, b. Belfast. Corrigan was a secretary and volunteer social worker in the Catholic neigh...

Zelenskiy, Volodymyr Oleksandrovych

(Encyclopedia)Zelenskiy, Volodymyr Oleksandrovych, 1978–, Ukrainian political leader and entertainer, president of Ukraine (2019–). He ear...

Deuteronomy

(Encyclopedia)Deuteronomy do͞otərŏnˈəmē [key], book of the Bible, literally meaning “second law,” last of the five books (the Pentateuch or Torah) ascribed by tradition to Moses. Deuteronomy purports to b...

Tangier, island, United States

(Encyclopedia)Tangier, island, E Va., in S Chesapeake Bay. Capt. John Smith first visited the island in 1608, and in 1620 settlers arrived from Cornwall, England. Isolated from the mainland, the people of Tangier d...

Bulgars, Eastern

(Encyclopedia)Bulgars, Eastern bŭlˈgärz, –gərz [key], Turkic-speaking people, who possessed a powerful state (10th–14th cent.) at the confluence of the Volga and the Kama, E European Russia. The Bulgars app...

Aenon

(Encyclopedia)Aenon ēˈnŏn [key], in the New Testament, unidentified place, where John the Baptist baptized people. ...

Métis, in Canadian history and society

(Encyclopedia)Métis [Fr.,=mixed], person of mixed racial heritage, particularly a descendant of French and English fur traders and indigenous women, principally in the Canadian prairie provinces of Alberta, Manito...
 

Browse by Subject