column
English
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Ancient Egyptian columns in Philae (Egypt)
Corinthian columns in temple of Bel (Syria)
Columns in typography
Etymology
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”).
Pronunciation
- (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
Noun
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.
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- (botany) The gynostemium
- (chemistry) An object used to separate the different components of a liquid or to purify chemical compounds.
Synonyms
- (upright structure): post, pillar, sile
Antonyms
- (line of table entries): row (which is horizontal)
Hypernyms
- (upright structure): beam
Derived terms
- advice column
- agony column
- a little from column A and a little from column B
- 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
Translations
upright supporting structure
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vertical line of entries in a table
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a vertical body of text
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column of troops
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newspaper column
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recurring feature in a periodical
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something having similar form or structure to the things mentioned above
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chemistry : object to separate components
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
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Further reading
- column in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
- column in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911
Dutch
Etymology
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.
Noun
column m (plural columns)
- A recurring opinion piece in a newspaper or magazine; a column
- Hyponym: cursiefje
- Hypernym: opiniestuk
Related terms
- columnist