COLUMN


Meaning of COLUMN in English

col ‧ umn S3 W2 /ˈkɒləm $ ˈkɑː-/ BrE AmE noun [countable]

[ Date: 1400-1500 ; Language: Old French ; Origin: colomne , from Latin columna , from columen 'top' ]

1 . a tall solid upright stone post used to support a building or as a decoration

2 . a line of numbers or words written under each other that goes down a page ⇨ row

in a column

Add up the numbers in each column.

column of

a column of figures

3 . an article on a particular subject or by a particular writer that appears regularly in a newspaper or magazine:

He writes a weekly column for ‘The Times’.

music/science/gardening etc column

4 . one of two or more areas of print that go down the page of a newspaper or book and that are separated from each other by a narrow space:

Turn to page 5, column 2.

‘The Sun’ devoted ten column inches to the event (=their article filled a column ten inches long) .

5 . something that has a tall thin shape

column of

a column of smoke

6 . a long moving line of people or things

column of

a column of marching men

⇨ ↑ fifth column , ↑ gossip column , ↑ personal column , ↑ spinal column

• • •

COLLOCATIONS (for Meaning 3)

■ ADJECTIVES/NOUN + column

▪ a newspaper column

He’s the writer of a weekly newspaper column.

▪ a weekly/daily/monthly column

Her daily column covered a wide range of topics.

▪ a regular column

His views were well-known from his regular column in The Spectator magazine.

▪ a gossip column (=one about the private lives of famous people)

She was upset by an item in the Washington Times gossip column.

▪ an editorial column (=that expresses the opinion of a newspaper editor)

the Financial Times editorial column

▪ a financial column

He wrote a financial column for the evening newspaper.

▪ a correspondence/letters column (=that prints some of the letters a newspaper receives)

Thousands of letters poured in to the correspondence column.

▪ an obituary column (=about the life of someone who has just died)

I spotted Stephenson's name in the obituary column.

▪ the personal column British English (=in which people can have personal messages printed)

I put a small advertisement in the personal column of the paper.

▪ an agony column British English (=that gives advice to readers about personal problems)

Romantic relationships are much discussed in all the agony columns.

▪ a lonely hearts column British English (=with advertisements for a new lover or friend)

Some men place advertisements in the lonely hearts columns.

■ verbs

▪ write a column

He writes a column on gardening for the Daily News.

▪ have a column (=write one)

Lynch had a weekly column in a Sydney newspaper.

■ column + NOUN

▪ column inches (=space in a newspaper or magazine)

Many column inches have recently been devoted to the troubled pop star.

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English.      Longman - Словарь современного английского языка.