Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia)  CE5 Wyoming wīōˈmĭng [key], least populous state in the United States, one of the Rocky Mt. states of the West. It is bordered by South Dakota and Nebraska (E), Colorado and Utah (S), Idaho (W)...

(Encyclopedia) Renaissance art and architecture, works of art and structures produced in Europe during the Renaissance. In England the Renaissance flowered in the middle of the 16th cent. The Elizabethan style an...

(Encyclopedia) physics, branch of science traditionally defined as the study of matter, energy, and the relation between them; it was called natural philosophy until the late 19th cent. and is still known by this na...

(Encyclopedia) World War II, 1939–45, worldwide conflict involving every major power in the world. The two sides were generally known as the Allies and the Axis. Although hostilities came to an end in Sept...

(Encyclopedia) novel, in modern literary usage, a sustained work of prose fiction a volume or more in length. It is distinguished from the short story and the fictional sketch, which are necessarily brief. Although ...

(Encyclopedia)  CE5 Australia ôstrālˈyə [key], smallest continent, between the Indian and Pacific oceans. With the island state of Tasmania to the south, the continent makes up th...

(Encyclopedia)  CE5 papacy pāˈpəsē [key], office of the pope, head of the Roman Catholic Church. He is pope by reason of being bishop of Rome and thus, according to Roman Catholic belief, successor in the see ...

(Encyclopedia)  CE5 CE5 CE5 Great Britain, officially United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, constitutional monarchy (2015 est. pop. 65,397,000), ...

(Encyclopedia) English literature, literature written in English since c.1450 by the inhabitants of the British Isles; it was during the 15th cent. that the English language acquired much of its modern form. For the...

(Encyclopedia) French literature, writings in medieval French dialects and standard modern French. Writings in Provençal and Breton are considered separately, as are works in French produced abroad (as at Canadian ...