column

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A tall, vertical post used to support a building or as decoration.

   Stone columns stood at the front of the temple.

2. 2
   noun

   A vertical line of numbers or words on a page or screen.

   The spreadsheet contained a column of numbers.

3. 3
   noun

   One of the vertical sections that a page of text is divided into.

   The text was too wide, so I split it into two columns.

4. 4
   noun

   A regular article written by a particular writer in a newspaper or magazine.

   She writes a weekly column on cooking.

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”).

Topics