ˈkäləm, sometimes ÷ -lyəm noun
( -s )
Etymology: Middle English columne, from Middle French colomne, from Latin columna, from columen top, summit; akin to Latin collis hill — more at hill
1.
a. : a vertical arrangement of items printed or written on a page or otherwise inscribed : a vertical list
with students' names in columns
adding a column of figures
b. : one of two or more vertical sections of a printed page or table that are separated by a rule or blank space
c. : an accumulation arranged vertically : stack
d. : a special department or feature (as of humor, sports, literary reviewing, or gossip) in a newspaper or periodical under a permanent title and generally reflecting the writer's individual tastes and point of view
e. : a list of those showing, favoring, or approving something
swinging the state into the Republican column
f. : a vertical set of positions on a punch card in which a character may be punched
2. : a supporting pillar: as
a. : a pillar consisting of a shaft, a capital, and usually a base, the shaft being of circular section except as it is fluted or channeled
b. : one of a building's vertical supporting members made of steel, cast iron, reinforced concrete, timber, or stone and often extending from the foundation through several floors, which it supports, to the roof
c. : a hollow steel cylinder with a jackscrew base usually set up between the floor and roof of mining workings to serve as a mounting for rock drills, light hoists, and other equipment
3. : a form, structure, or formation shaped like a column: as
a. : an upright mass : a somewhat cylindrical upright body
the springs occasionally spouted columns of water far into the air — American Guide Series: Michigan
the metal column of the water spout
a column of smoke from the burning ship
specifically : a cylindrical dripstone formation made by union of stalactite and stalagmite
b. : a tower or other cylindrical construction
c. : a mass of air conceived of as columnar in shape but not necessarily vertical
a column of air sweeping through the tunnel
d. : a vertical tube or tower through which gases or vapors are passed to purify them ; especially : one used in connection with distillation equipment for effecting a fractionation of the vapors (as by the use of plates with bubble caps or of packing)
4.
a. : a military, naval, or aeronautic formation in which elements (as soldiers, vehicles, ships, or planes) proceed one after another — contrasted with line
b. : an arrangement of elements moving or placed one after another : an active group likened to such a column
a column of strikers picketing the mill
a column of cars crossing the bridge
— see fifth column
5.
a. : the united monadelphous stamens in mallows
b. : the united androecium and gynoecium in orchids
c. : prop , support
d. : a decorative element made to resemble a pillar
a cabinet with columns running up the length of each corner
6. : any of various bodily parts or structures likened to a column or pillar: as
a. : the body of an actinian as distinguished from the base and disk
b. : the stalk of a crinoid
c. : a longitudinal subdivision of the spinal cord: as
(1) : any of the principal longitudinal bundles of nerve fibers disposed as the anterior, the lateral, and the posterior divisions of white matter on each side and separated by the median fissures and spinal nerve roots — called also funiculus
(2) : any of a number of smaller bundles of spinal nerve fibers : fasciculus
the column of Burdach
(3) : any of the confluent longitudinal masses of nerve cells constituting the gray matter of each side — called also gray column, gray horn ; see dorsal column , lateral column , ventral column
7. : one of the vertical lines of a determinant or matrix in mathematics
8. : the vertical or chronologic succession of geologic formations in a region
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