column

noun9

1. •
   a tall post of stone or metal that holds up part of a building above it
2. •
   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. — 1892
3. •
   A vertical line of entries in a table, usually read from top to bottom.
4. •
   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.
5. •
   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.
6. •
   A body of troops or army vehicles, usually strung out along a road.
7. •
   An instrument used to separate the different components of a liquid or to purify chemical compounds.
8. •
   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.
9. •
   The gynostemium.