Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) threat, in law, declaration of intent to injure another by doing an unlawful act, with a view to restraining his freedom of action. A threat is distinguishable from an assault, for an assault requires...

(Encyclopedia) ultimatum ŭlˌtĭmāˈtəm [key], in international law, final, definitive terms submitted by one disputant nation to the other for immediate acceptance or rejection. Since refusal to accept the terms...

(Encyclopedia) Romains, Jules zhül rômăNˈ [key], 1885–1972, French writer, whose original name was Louis Farigoule. A brilliant student of philosophy, he became known as the chief exponent of unanimism, a lite...

(Encyclopedia) Rugby, town (1991 pop. 59,039), Warwickshire, central England. An important railroad junction and engineering center, Rugby is the seat of one of England's most esteemed public schools. Rugby School w...

(Encyclopedia) Rank, Otto ôtˈō rängk [key], 1884–1937, Austrian psychoanalyst; one of Sigmund Freud's first and most valued pupils. He early employed Freudian techniques to clarify the underlying significance ...

(Encyclopedia) specific heat, ratio of the heat capacity of a substance to the heat capacity of a reference substance, usually water. Heat capacity is the amount of heat needed to change the temperature of a unit ma...

(Encyclopedia) episome ĕpˈĭsōm [key], unit of genetic material composed of a series of genes that sometimes has an independent existence in a host cell and at other times is integrated into a chromosome of the c...

(Encyclopedia) Green, Thomas Hill, 1836–82, English idealist philosopher. Educated at Oxford, he was associated with the university all his life. He was professor of moral philosophy there from 1878 until his deat...

(Encyclopedia) half-life, measure of the average lifetime of a radioactive substance (see radioactivity) or an unstable subatomic particle. One half-life is the time required for one half of any given quantity of th...

(Encyclopedia) Andronicus I (Andronicus Comnenus) ăndrənīˈkəs kŏmnēˈnəs [key], 1120?–1185, Byzantine emperor (1183–85), nephew of John II. He acceded to the throne by strangling his cousin Alexius II. T...