Columbia
[kuh-luhm-bee-uh]
- a river in SW Canada and the NW United States, flowing S and W from SE British Columbia through Washington along the boundary between Washington and Oregon and into the Pacific. 1214 miles (1955 km) long.
- Cape, a cape on the N coast of Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada, in the Arctic Ocean: northernmost point of Canada.
- a city in and the capital of South Carolina, in the central part.
- a city in central Missouri.
- a city in central Maryland.
- a city in central Tennessee.
- a city in SE Pennsylvania.
- Literary. the United States of America.
- one of an American breed of large sheep, developed by crossbreeding the Lincoln and Rambouillet, noted for its good market lambs and heavy fleece of medium length.
- (italics) U.S. Aerospace. the first space shuttle to orbit and return to earth.
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South Carolina
- a state in the SE United States, on the Atlantic coast. 31,055 sq. mi. (80,430 sq. km). Capital: Columbia. Abbreviation: SC (for use with zip code), S.C.
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Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for columbia
Contemporary Examples
MGM and Columbia are both subsidiaries of Sony Pictures Entertainment.
In January 2014, a lifelong District of Columbia parks employee, Medric Mills, collapsed while walking with his grown daughter.
He hopes to attend Columbia Medical School and specialize in Oncology.
The Daily Beast: You received an MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia.
As of July 2014, only 22 states and the District of Columbia require sex education to be taught in public schools.
Historical Examples
It has also passed a model child-labor law for the District of Columbia.
Except for the label, the "Finest Columbia Salmon" was ready for the market.
American NotesRudyard Kipling
Columbia, Columbia, to glory arise,The queen of the world and the child of the skies.
The Columbia is to be completed, ready for service, by May 19, 1893.
Its name is suggestive of Columbia, and our country is often called by that name.
Columbia1
- a river in NW North America, rising in the Rocky Mountains and flowing through British Columbia, then west to the Pacific. Length: about 1930 km (1200 miles)
- a city in central South Carolina, on the Congaree River: the state capital. Pop: 117 357 (2003 est)
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Columbia2
- the first test vehicle of the NASA space shuttle fleet to prove the possibility of routine access to space for scientific and commercial ventures
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South Carolina
- a state of the southeastern US, on the Atlantic: the first state to secede from the Union in 1860; consists largely of low-lying coastal plains, rising in the northwest to the Blue Ridge Mountains; the largest US textile producer. Capital: Columbia. Pop: 4 147 152 (2003 est). Area: 78 282 sq km (30 225 sq miles)Abbreviation and zip code: SC
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for columbia
Columbia
poetic name for United States of America, earlier for the British colonies there, 1730s, also the nation's female personification, from name of Christopher Columbus (also see Colombia) with Latin "country" ending -ia. A popular name for places and institutions in the U.S. in the post-Revolutionary years, when former tributes to king and crown were out of fashion: e.g. Columbia University (New York, U.S.) founded in 1754 as King's College; re-named 1784. Also District of Columbia (1791, as Territory of Columbia); "Hail, Columbia" (Joseph Hopkinson, 1798), Barlow's "Columbiad" (1809).
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
South Carolina
State in the southeastern United States, bordered by North Carolina to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the south and east, and Georgia to the south and west. Its capital and largest city is Columbia.
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Note
One of the thirteen colonies.
Note
One of the Confederate states during the Civil War.
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.