Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) semantics [Gr.,=significant] in general, the study of the relationship between words and meanings. The empirical study of word meanings and sentence meanings in existing languages is a branch of lingu...

(Encyclopedia)  CE5 Northwest Territory Northwest Territory, first possession of the United States, comprising the region known as the Old Northwest, S and W of the Great Lakes, NW of the Ohio River, and E of the...

(Encyclopedia) Federalist party, in U.S. history, the political faction that favored a strong federal government. Opposition to war brought the Federalists the support of Clinton and many others, and the party mad...

(Encyclopedia) Rockefeller, John Davison, 1839–1937, American industrialist and philanthropist, b. Richford, N.Y. He moved (1853) with his family to a farm near Cleveland and at age 16 went to work as a bookkeeper...

(Encyclopedia)  CE5 Serbia sŭrˈbēä [key], officially Republic of Serbia, republic (2015 est. pop. 8,851,000), 34,116 sq mi (88,361 sq km), W central Balkan Peninsula; formerly the chief constituent republic of...

(Encyclopedia) bee, name for flying insects of the superfamily Apoidea, in the same order as the ants and the wasps. Bees are characterized by their enlarged hind feet, typically equipped with pollen baskets of stif...

(Encyclopedia) Newark. 1 City (1990 pop. 37,861), Alameda co., W Calif., on the east side of San Francisco Bay; inc. 1955. There is food processing and the manufacture of plastics, furniture, feeds, semiconductors, ...

(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) song, relatively brief, simple vocal composition, usually a setting of a poetic text, often strophic, for accompanied solo voice. The song literature of Western music embodies two broad classification...

(Encyclopedia) Walachia or Wallachia both: wälāˈkēə, wə– [key], historic region (29,568 sq mi/76,581 sq km), S Romania. The Transylvanian Alps separate it in the NW from Transylvania and the Banat; the Danub...