Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Marathas or Mahrattas both: mərătˈəz, məräˈtəz [key], Marathi-speaking people of W central India, known for their ability as warriors and their devotion to Hinduism. From their homeland in Mah...

(Encyclopedia) veto [Lat.,=I forbid], power of one functionary (e.g., the president) of a government, or of one member of a group or coalition, to block the operation of laws or agreements passed or entered into by ...

(Encyclopedia) Damocles dămˈəklēz [key], in classical mythology, courtier at the court of Dionysius I. He so persistently praised the power and happiness of Dionysius that the tyrant, in order to show the precar...

(Encyclopedia) Shoshone project, NW Wyo., near the Mont. line and in the Shoshone River basin. Developed by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, it irrigates a large portion of land and has four divisions. The project is...

(Encyclopedia) Snowdon, Welsh Yr Wyddfa, highest mountain of Wales, 3,560 ft (1,085 m) high, Gwynedd, NW Wales. Its five peaks are separated by passes. There is a rack and pinion railway (opened 1896) from Llanberis...

(Encyclopedia) Ptolemaïs ptôlĭmīsˈ [key], town (1991 pop. 25,195), N Greece, in Macedonia. It was a small market town until 1958, when it began to be developed as an industrial center. Lignite, mined there in v...

(Encyclopedia) Stirling engine, an external combustion reciprocating engine having an enclosed working fluid that is alternately compressed and expanded to operate a piston, thus converting heat from a variety of so...

(Encyclopedia) Mugabe, Robert Gabriel mo͞ogäˈbē, –bā [key], 1924–2019, president of Zimbabwe (1987–2017). A founder of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) in 1963 and a guerrilla leader, he was imp...

(Encyclopedia) Manning, Patrick Augustus Mervyn, 1946–2016, Trinidadian political leader, prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago (1991–95, 2001–10). He entered politics in the 1960s while studying geology at th...

(Encyclopedia) decibel dĕsˈəbĕlˌ, –bəl [key], abbr. dB, unit used to measure the loudness of sound. It is one tenth of a bel (named for A. G. Bell), but the larger unit is rarely used. The decibel is a measu...