Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Guare, John gwâr [key], 1938–, American playwright, b. New York City, B.A. Georgetown, 1960, M.F.A. Yale, 1963. Guare's freewheeling, satirical plays are the antithesis of “kitchen sink” natura...

(Encyclopedia) fox, carnivorous mammal of the dog family, found throughout most of the Northern Hemisphere. It has a pointed face, short legs, long, thick fur, and a tail about one half to two thirds as long as the ...

(Encyclopedia)  CE5 Virginia, state of the S Middle-Atlantic United States. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean (E), North Carolina and Tennessee (S), Kentucky and West Virginia (W), and Maryland and the District...

(Encyclopedia) parrot, common name for members of the order Psittaciformes, comprising nearly 400 species of colorful birds, pantropical in distribution, including the parakeets. Parrots have large heads and short n...

(Encyclopedia) pigmentation, name for the coloring matter found in certain plant and animal cells and for the color produced thereby. Pigmentation occurs in nearly all living organisms. Almost all plants synthesize ...

(Encyclopedia) limestone, sedimentary rock wholly or in large part composed of calcium carbonate. It is ordinarily white but may be colored by impurities, iron oxide making it brown, yellow, or red and carbon making...

(Encyclopedia) lobefin, common name for any of a group of lunged, fleshy-finned, bony fishes, also called crossopterygians, that were dominant in the Devonian period and may have given rise to amphibians. They had h...

(Encyclopedia) Madoff, Bernard Lawrence māˈdôf [key], 1938–2021, American stockbroker, investment manager, and ...

(Encyclopedia) Nelson, Willie, 1933–, American country singer, guitarist, and songwriter, b. Abbott, Tex. Nelson began playing professionally at 10 and joined a western swing band as a teenager. In the 1960s he mo...

(Encyclopedia) Petit, Roland rōläNˈ pətēˈ [key], 1924–2011, French dancer and choreographer, b. Villemomble. Petit joined the Paris Opéra company at 15 and in 1948 founded Les Ballets de Paris de Roland Pe...