Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

483 results found

ballot

(Encyclopedia)ballot, means of voting for candidates for office. The choice may be indicated on or by the ballot forms themselves—e.g., colored balls (hence the term ballot, which is derived from the Italian ball...

Allen, Ethan

(Encyclopedia)Allen, Ethan, 1738–89, hero of the American Revolution, leader of the Green Mountain Boys, and promoter of the independence and statehood of Vermont, b. Litchfield (?), Conn. He had some schooling a...

Douglass, Frederick

(Encyclopedia)Douglass, Frederick dŭgˈləs [key], c.1818–1895, American abolitionist, b. near Easton, Md. as Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey. The son of a black slave, Harriet Bailey, and a white father, m...

anesthesia

(Encyclopedia)anesthesia ănĭsthēˈzhə [key] [Gr.,=insensibility], loss of sensation, especially that of pain, induced by drugs, especially as a means of facilitating safe surgical procedures. Early modern medic...

Netanyahu, Benjamin

(Encyclopedia)Netanyahu, Benjamin or Binyamin bēnˈyəmēnˌ nĕtənyäˈho͞o [key], 1949–, Isr...

manuscript

(Encyclopedia)manuscript, a handwritten work as distinguished from printing. The oldest manuscripts, those found in Egyptian tombs, were written on papyrus; the earliest dates from c.3500 b.c. parchment, which succ...

data encryption

(Encyclopedia)data encryption, the process of scrambling stored or transmitted information so that it is unintelligible until it is unscrambled by the intended recipient. Historically, data encryption has been used...

Chomsky, Noam

(Encyclopedia)Chomsky, Noam nōm chŏmˈskē [key], 1928–, educator and linguist, b. Philadelphia. Chomsky, who has taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology since 1955, developed a theory of transforma...

Whittier, John Greenleaf

(Encyclopedia)Whittier, John Greenleaf hwĭtˈēər [key], 1807–92, American Quaker poet and reformer, b. near Haverhill, Mass. Whittier was a pioneer in regional literature as well as a crusader for many humanit...

tunicate

(Encyclopedia)tunicate to͞oˈnəkĭt [key], marine animal of the phylum Chordata, which also includes the vertebrates. The adult form of most tunicates (also called urochordates) shows no resemblance to vertebrate...
 

Browse by Subject