column

noun

1. 1

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

2. 2

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

3. 3

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

4. 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. 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. 6

   (by extension) 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.”

7. 7

   Something having similar vertical form or structure to the things mentioned above, such as a spinal column.

8. 8

   The gynostemium

9. 9

   (chemistry) An object used to separate the different components of a liquid or to purify chemical compounds.