Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Salt Lake City, city (1990 pop. 159,936), alt. c.4,330 ft (1,320 m), state capital and seat of Salt Lake co., N central Utah, on the Jordan River and near the Great Salt Lake, at the foot of the Wasat...

(Encyclopedia) samurai säˌmo͞orīˈ [key], knights of feudal Japan, retainers of the daimyo. This aristocratic warrior class arose during the 12th-century wars between the Taira and Minamoto clans and was consoli...

(Encyclopedia) electromotive series, list of metals whose order indicates the relative tendency to be oxidized, or to give up electrons (see oxidation and reduction); the list also includes the gas hydrogen. The ele...

(Encyclopedia) glycol glīˈkōl [key], dihydric alcohol in which the two hydroxyl groups are bonded to different carbon atoms; the general formula for a glycol is (CH2)n(OH)2. The most important glycol is the simpl...

(Encyclopedia) Guerrero, state, 24,887 sq mi (64,457 sq km), S Mexico, on the Pacific Ocean. The capital is Chilpancingo. Dominated by the Sierra Madre del Sur, which ...

(Encyclopedia) neurosis, in psychiatry, a broad category of psychological disturbance, encompassing various mild forms of mental disorder. Until fairly recently, the term neurosis was broadly employed in contrast wi...

(Encyclopedia) thorium thôrˈēəm [key] [from Thor], radioactive chemical element; symbol Th; at. no. 90; mass number of most stable isotope 232; m.p. about 1,750℃; b.p. about 4,790℃; sp. gr. 11.7 at 20℃; va...

(Encyclopedia) food poisoning, acute illness following the eating of foods contaminated by bacteria, bacterial toxins, natural poisons, or harmful chemical substances. It was once customary to classify all such illn...

(Encyclopedia) locust, in zoology, name for certain migratory members of the short-horned grasshopper family (Acrididae). Like other members of this family, locusts have antennae shorter than their bodies, song-prod...

(Encyclopedia) Lomax, John Avery lōˈmăks [key], 1867–1948, American folklorist, b. Goodman, Miss. Lomax's first book, Cowboy Songs (1910), contained for the first time in print such songs as “The Old Chisholm...