Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Ratnapura rŭtˈnəpo͝orə [key] [Sinhalese,=city of gems], town (1995 est. pop. 46,000), SW Sri Lanka. Located in a rubber- and rice-producing area, Ratnapura is Sri Lanka's major precious-stone cen...

(Encyclopedia) Brown, Jacob Jennings, 1775–1828, American general, b. Bucks co., Pa. In the War of 1812 he defeated (May, 1813) a British attempt to take Sackets Harbor, N.Y., and the next year became commander of...

(Encyclopedia) Gibson, Paris, 1830–1920, American pioneer and politician, b. Brownfield, Maine. After serving in the Maine legislature he moved to Minneapolis, where he built the first flour mill and started woole...

(Encyclopedia) Alwar ŭlˈvər, –ˈwər [key], city, Rajasthan state, N central India. On the Delhi-Jaipur Road, Alwar is a market for grain, oilseed, cotton, and marble. There are tex...

(Encyclopedia) Fairmont, city (2020 pop. 18,302), seat of Marion co., N central W.Va., where the West Fork and Tygart rivers form the Monongahela; settled 1793 around ...

(Encyclopedia) locust, in zoology, name for certain migratory members of the short-horned grasshopper family (Acrididae). Like other members of this family, locusts have antennae shorter than their bodies, song-prod...

(Encyclopedia) Winfrey, Oprah, 1954–, African-American television host, actress, and media magnate, b. Kosciusko, Miss., as Orpah Gail Winfrey, grad. Tennessee State Univ. (1976). She began her career as a Nashvil...

(Encyclopedia) weevil, common name for certain beetles of the snout beetle family (Curculionidae), small, usually dull-colored, hard-bodied insects. The mouthparts of snout beetles are modified into down-curved snou...

(Encyclopedia) value, in economics, worth of a commodity in terms of other commodities, or in terms of money (see price). Value depends on both desirability and scarcity. The marginal theory of value, pioneered in t...