Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) check or cheque, bill of exchange (see draft) drawn upon a bank or trust company or broker connected with a clearinghouse (see clearing). Upon presentation of a check, the bank or other drawee pays ca...

(Encyclopedia) humidity, moisture content of the atmosphere, a primary element of climate. Humidity measurements include absolute humidity, the mass of water vapor per unit volume of natural air; relative humidity (...

(Encyclopedia) reading, process of mentally interpreting written symbols. Facility in reading is an essential factor in educational progress, and instruction in this basic skill is a primary purpose of elementary ed...

(Encyclopedia) Guizot, François fräNswäˈ gēzōˈ [key], 1787–1874, French statesman and historian. The son of a Protestant family of Nîmes, he was educated at Geneva. He began a legal career in Paris in 1805...

(Encyclopedia) angina pectoris ănjīˈnə pĕkˈtərĭs [key], condition characterized by chest pain that occurs when the muscles of the heart receive an insufficient supply of oxygen. This results when the arterie...

(Encyclopedia) Euclid yo͞oˈklĭd [key], fl. 300 b.c., Greek mathematician. Little is known of his life other than the fact that he taught at Alexandria, being associated with the school that grew up there in the l...

(Encyclopedia) McNamara, Robert Strange măkˈnəmârˌə [key], 1916–2009, U.S. secretary of defense (1961–68), b. San Francisco, grad Univ. of California, Berkeley (B.A., 1937), Harvard (M.B.A., 1939). He taug...

(Encyclopedia) Lateran Treaty, concordat between the Holy See and the kingdom of Italy signed in 1929 in the Lateran Palace, Rome, by Cardinal Gasparri for Pius XI and by Benito Mussolini for Victor Emmanuel III. On...

(Encyclopedia) Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso) ŏvˈĭd [key], 43 b.c.–a.d. 18, Latin poet, b. Sulmo (present-day Sulmona), in the Apennines. Although trained for the law, he preferred the company of the literary cote...

(Encyclopedia) Pachacamac päˌchäkämäkˈ [key], ruins of a walled Native American settlement, Peru, about 25 mi (40 km) SE of Lima in the Lurin Valley. This site, which contains a number of pyramids, was conside...