Column

Pronunciation

• RP IPA: /ˈkÉ’lÉ™m/
• US enPR: kŏl'É™m, IPA: /ˈkÉ‘lÉ™m/
• Rhymes: -É’lÉ™m

Origin

From Old French columne, from Latin columna ("a column, pillar, post"), originally a collateral form of columen, contraction culmen ("a pillar, top, crown, summit"), o-grade form from a Proto-Indo-European *kʷel- ("going around"). Akin to Latin collis ("a hill"), celsus ("high"), probably to Ancient Greek κολοφών (kolophōn, "top, summit").

Full definition of column

Noun

1. A solid upright structure designed usually to support a larger structure above it, such as a roof or horizontal beam, but sometimes for decoration.
2. A vertical line of entries in a table, usually read from top to bottom.
3. A body of troops or army vehicles, usually strung out along a road.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. (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.
7. Something having similar vertical form or structure to the things mentioned above, such as a spinal column.
• 1892, James Yoxall, The Lonely Pyramid Chapter 5, 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.
8. (botany) The gynostemium

Synonyms

• (upright structure) post, pillar, sile

Antonyms

• (line of table entries) row which is horizontal

Hypernyms

• (upright structure) beam