Meaning & use
column
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Meanings
nouncountable
A tall, upright post, usually of stone, that supports part of a building or stands as a monument.
Grammar: Countable: a marble column, rows of columns.
Patterns
- a column of something
Stone columns held up the porch roof.
A tall column in the square honors the city's founders.
The temple had twelve carved columns.
nouncountable
A vertical block of text or numbers, such as one section of a newspaper page or one line in a table.
Grammar: Countable: the left column, three columns.
Patterns
- in the left/right column
- column of numbers
Add the numbers in the second column.
The article fills two columns on page five.
Put the dates in the first column of the spreadsheet.
nouncountable
A regular article by the same writer in a newspaper or magazine, often giving opinions.
Grammar: Often with a verb like write: she writes a column.
Patterns
- write a column
- a column about something
She writes a weekly column about cooking.
His column on city politics angered the mayor.
Readers send letters in response to her column.
nouncountable
A long line of people, vehicles or soldiers moving one behind another, or a tall thin shape of smoke or flame.
Grammar: Often with of: a column of smoke, a column of troops.
Patterns
- a column of something
A column of ants crossed the kitchen floor.
A column of smoke rose from the hills.
The army marched in a long column.
Word forms
| plural | columns |
|---|
Common combinations
- newspaper column
- Her newspaper column is read by thousands.
- Greek columns
- The museum is fronted with Greek columns.
- column of smoke
- A column of smoke rose over the valley.
- spinal column
- The spinal column protects the nerves.
- column heading
- Check each column heading before filling in the table.
Synonyms and how they differ
- pillar
- Pillar is more general, and can be any upright support, even square, while column is typically round.
- post
- Post is a plain upright piece of wood or metal, but a column is larger and often decorative.
- article
- Article is any piece of writing in a paper, while a column is a regular piece by one writer.
- file
- File is a line of people one behind another, similar to column of people but less formal in tone.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: column or colon? column or row?
column vs colon
A colon is a punctuation mark or part of the large intestine, and the two words are not the same.
column vs row
A row goes across the page, while a column goes down.
Practice
In a spreadsheet, a column runs in which direction?
Choose one answer.
Columns run vertically while rows run horizontally. The other options do not describe spreadsheet layout.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “column”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.