column
EnglishEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Middle English columne, columpne, columpe, borrowed from Old French columne, from Latin columna (“a column, pillar, post”), originally a collateral form of columen, contraction culmen (“a pillar, top, crown, summit”). Akin to Latin collis (“a hill”), celsus (“high”), probably to Ancient Greek κολοφών (kolophṓn, “top, summit”).
PronunciationEdit
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈkɒləm/
- (General American), (Ireland) enPR: kŏlʹəm, IPA(key): /ˈkɑləm/
- (General American, rare), (Ireland) enPR: kŏlʹjəm, IPA(key): /ˈkɑljəm/
- Hyphenation: col‧umn
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -ɒləm
NounEdit
column (plural columns)
- (architecture) A solid upright structure designed usually to support a larger structure above it, such as a roof or horizontal beam, but sometimes for decoration.
- A vertical line of entries in a table, usually read from top to bottom.
- A body of troops or army vehicles, usually strung out along a road.
- A body of text meant to be read line by line, especially in printed material that has multiple adjacent such on a single page.
- It was too hard to read the text across the whole page, so I split it into two columns.
- A unit of width, especially of advertisements, in a periodical, equivalent to the width of a usual column of text.
- Each column inch costs $300 a week; this ad is four columns by three inches, so will run $3600 a week.
- (by extension) A recurring feature in a periodical, especially an opinion piece, especially by a single author or small rotating group of authors, or on a single theme.
- His initial foray into print media was as the author of a weekly column in his elementary-school newspaper.
- Something having similar vertical form or structure to the things mentioned above, such as a spinal column.
- 1892, James Yoxall, chapter 5, in The Lonely Pyramid:
- The desert storm was riding in its strength; the travellers lay beneath the mastery of the fell simoom. Whirling wreaths and columns of burning wind, rushed around and over them.
- (botany) The gynostemium
- (chemistry) An object used to separate the different components of a liquid or to purify chemical compounds.
SynonymsEdit
AntonymsEdit
- (line of table entries): row (which is horizontal)
HypernymsEdit
- (upright structure): beam
Derived termsEdit
- a little from column A and a little from column B
- advice column
- agony column
- clustered column
- column density
- column echelon form
- column inch
- column shifter
- column space
- column still
- column vector
- cortical column
- dodge the column
- engaged column
- eruption column
- fifth column
- flying column
- fractionating column
- letter column
- Morris column
- multiple-column
- nanocolumn
- personal column
- positive column
- pseudo-column
- semi-column
- social column
- society column
- steering column
- supercolumn
- Türck's column
- vertebral column
- water column
- wide column store
TranslationsEdit
upright supporting structure
|
vertical line of entries in a table
|
a vertical body of text
|
column of troops
|
newspaper column
|
recurring feature in a periodical
something having similar form or structure to the things mentioned above
|
chemistry : object to separate components
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Further readingEdit
- column in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
- column in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911
DutchEdit
EtymologyEdit
Borrowed from English column, from Middle English columne, borrowed from Old French columne, from Latin columna (“a column, pillar, post”), originally a collateral form of columen, contraction culmen (“a pillar, top, crown, summit”). Doublet of kolom and holm.
NounEdit
column m (plural columns)
- A recurring opinion piece in a newspaper or magazine; a column
- Hyponym: cursiefje
- Hypernym: opiniestuk