column

noun

KOL-um/ˈkɑləm/UKKOL-uhm/ˈkɒləm/

9 meanings of column

1
nouncountable
A tall, upright post that holds up a roof, beam, or other part of a building.
Like a strong leg holding up a heavy table.
The old temple had a row of tall stone columns.
A single marble column held up the corner of the porch.
Similarpillar, post, pier, upright, support
Note
2
nouncountable
A line of items that runs from the top to the bottom of a table.
Like a tall stack of boxes, with one entry sitting above the next.
Put all the names in the first column.
Each column shows the prices for one store.
Oppositerow
3
nouncountable
A narrow block of text that you read down the page, as in a newspaper.
Like a long, thin strip of words running down the page.
The newspaper printed the article in two narrow columns.
He read down the left column before turning the page.
4
nouncountable
A regular piece of writing in a newspaper or magazine, often giving one writer's opinions.
She writes a weekly column about cooking.
His column on local politics has thousands of readers.
Similarfeature, article, piece
Note
5
nouncountable
A long line of soldiers or military vehicles moving along a road.
Like a long line of ants, each one following the one ahead.
A column of tanks rolled through the town at dawn.
The soldiers marched in a long column down the highway.
Similarconvoy, line, file
6
nouncountable
A tall, upright thing shaped like a pillar, such as a backbone or a rising cloud of smoke.
A thick column of smoke rose from the burning barn.
The doctor examined the bones in her spinal column.
Similarpillar, plume, shaft
Note
7
nouncountable
A unit of width for ads in a newspaper, equal to how wide one block of text is.
The ad took up two columns of space.
A single column was wide enough for the small notice.
Note
8
nouncountable
A tall tube used in science to separate the parts of a liquid or to clean chemical substances.
Like a coffee filter that lets some things pass through but holds others back.
The students poured the mixture into the column.
A column can split a liquid into its separate parts.
Note
9
nouncountable
The part of an orchid flower that joins its male and female organs into one structure.
Insects brush against the column when they enter the flower.
The orchid's column holds both its pollen and its stigma.
Similargynostemium
Note

Practice

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Origin

It comes from Latin "columna," meaning a column or pillar.