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.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Column entered English in the late Middle Ages from Latin columna. Its architectural sense and its use for a vertical section of writing appeared at roughly the same time; the latter produced the newspaper sense in the late 18th century and columnist in the early 20th century.

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

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary