Column

How to spell column

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce column

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does column mean?

1. nounA tall, upright pillar, usually of stone or concrete, that supports or decorates a structure.
2. nounA vertical arrangement of figures, words, or items on a page or in a table.
3. nounA regular article or feature written by a particular journalist in a newspaper or magazine.

Column in a sentence

• A crack ran up the marble column near the entrance.

• Add the totals in the right-hand column of the spreadsheet.

• She writes a weekly column on personal finance.

• The ancient temple still has one intact column standing.

• Each column in the table lists a different month.

• His gardening column appears every Saturday.

Where does column come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin columna, meaning a pillar or upright post, which was closely related to columen, meaning a peak, summit, or supporting top. Both trace back to an older root suggesting something raised up high, the same notion that lies behind 'culminate'. English took the word in during the Middle Ages through Old French colombe and colomne, originally describing the tall stone supports of grand buildings. From that architectural sense it spread outward: a tall body of marching soldiers became a column, the upright rows of figures and text on a page became columns, and a writer's regular slot in a newspaper took the name too. The spelling trap is entirely down to that inherited Latin -mn ending, where the final n is written but never pronounced, just as in 'autumn' and 'solemn'.

How the word is built

• column (from Latin columna: pillar, post), with the silent final -n that English kept from the Latin spelling