Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) emanation ĕmənāˈshən [key] [Lat.,=flowing from], cosmological concept that explains the creation of the world by a series of radiations, or emanations, originating in the godhead. It is character...

(Encyclopedia) in vitro fertilization vēˈtrō, vĭˈtrō [key] (IVF), technique for conception of a human embryo outside the mother's body. Several ova, or eggs, are removed from the mother's body and placed in sp...

(Encyclopedia) salmon sămˈən [key], member of the Salmonidae, a family of marine fish that spawn in freshwater, including the salmons, the trouts, and the chars (subfamily Salmoninae), the whitefish and the cisco...

(Encyclopedia) fife, small transverse flute with six to eight finger holes adopted for military music by Swiss regiments serving in France in the late 15th cent. The fife was used in the British army until the end o...

(Encyclopedia) rape, in botany, annual herb (Brassica napus) of the family Cruciferae (or Brassicaceae; mustard family), belonging to the same genus as the cabbage, the mustard plant, and the turnip (which it resemb...

(Encyclopedia) meter, in music, the division of a composition into units of equal time value called measures, and the subdivision of those measures into an underlying pattern of stresses or accents (see measure). Me...

(Encyclopedia) dimension, in physics, an expression of the character of a derived quantity in relation to fundamental quantities, without regard for its numerical value. In any system of measurement, such as the met...

(Encyclopedia) banking, primarily the business of dealing in money and instruments of credit. Banks were traditionally differentiated from other financial institutions by their principal functions of accepting depos...

(Encyclopedia) Gloria in excelsis ĕksĕlˈsĭs [key] [Lat.,=glory in the highest], the Angelic Hymn or greater doxology, ancient Christian hymn beginning, according to the Authorized Version, “Glory be to God on ...

(Encyclopedia) Andromeda, in astronomy, northern constellation located to the NE of Pegasus and to the S of Cassiopeia. Its brightest star, Alpheratz (Alpha Andromedae), marks the northeast corner of the Great Squar...