columnnoun/ˈkɒləm/

• 1

  architectureA solid upright structure designed usually to support a larger structure above it, such as a roof or horizontal beam, but sometimes for decoration.

• 2

  A vertical line of entries in a table, usually read from top to bottom.

• 3

  A body of troops or army vehicles, usually strung out along a road.

• 4

  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.
• 5

  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.
• 6

  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.
  • I have always argued that despite my opposition to rail privatisation, I should be grateful that John Major won the 1992 election on a platform to sell off the railways, as otherwise my column would have disappeared given the paucity of things to write about.
• 7

  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.
• 8

  biologybotanynatural-sciencesThe gynostemium.