column

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a tall vertical cylindrical architectural structure standing upright and used to support a structure

   The columns accented the front of the house.

2. 2
   noun

   a page or text that is vertically divided

   the newspaper devoted several columns to the subject

3. 3
   noun

   a vertical array of numbers or other information

   The spreadsheet contained a column of numbers.

4. 4
   noun

   anything that approximates the shape of a column or tower

   the test tube held a column of white powder

5. 5
   noun

   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.

6. 6
   noun

   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.

7. 7
   noun

   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.

8. 8
   noun

   Something having similar vertical form or structure to the things mentioned above, such as a spinal column.

   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.

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”).