Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Pentecostalism, worldwide 20th–21st-century Christian movement that emphasizes the experience of Spirit baptism, generally evidenced by speaking in tongues (glossolalia). The name derives from Pente...

(Encyclopedia) shell money, medium of exchange consisting of shells, the most widely distributed type of ancient currency. Shells are particularly useful as money because they may be strung in long strips of proport...

(Encyclopedia) Compromise of 1850. The annexation of Texas to the United States and the gain of new territory by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo at the close of the Mexican War (1848) aggravated the hostility betwee...

(Encyclopedia) Prudhoe Bay, inlet of the Beaufort Sea and Arctic Ocean, N Alaska, in the Alaska North Slope region, east of the Colville River delta. In 1968 one of the largest oil reserves in North America was disc...

(Encyclopedia) North-West Frontier Province: see Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. ...

(Encyclopedia) Chiapas chēäˈpäs [key], state, 28,732 sq mi (74,416 sq km), SE Mexico, on the Pacific Ocean ...

(Encyclopedia) North American Indian music: see Native American music. ...

(Encyclopedia) North-East Frontier Agency, India: see Arunachal Pradesh. ...

(Encyclopedia) Verrazzano, Giovanni da jōvänˈnē dä vĕrˌrätsäˈnō; vĕrˌəzäˈnō [key], c.1480–1527?, Italian navigator and explorer, in the service of France, possibly the first European to enter New ...

(Encyclopedia) huckleberry, any plant of the genus Gaylussacia, shrubs of the family Ericaceae (heath family), native to North and South America. The box huckleberry (G. brachycera) of E North America is evergreen a...