column.
1. Detached rather slender vertical structural element, sometimes monolithic, usually circular (but sometimes square or polygonal) on plan, normally carrying an entablature or lintel, but sometimes standing on its own with a statue on top as a monument. In the Classical Orders, a column consists of a base, shaft, and capital (except for the Greek Doric Order, which has no base), and the shaft tapers towards the top in a gentle curve called entasis. Columns are distinct from piers and pillars.

2. Any relatively slender vertical structural member in compression, supporting a load acting near the direction of its main axis. See also angular, antonine, band, barley-sugar, block, carolitic, cluster, colonnade, columniation, composite, corinthian, detached, doric, engaged, grouped, intercolumniation, ionic, order, portico, solomonic, spiral, torso, trajanic, triumphal, tuscan, twisted.

col·umn / ˈkäləm/ • n. 1. an upright pillar, typically cylindrical and made of stone or concrete, supporting an entablature, arch, or other structure or standing alone as a monument. ∎  a similar vertical, roughly cylindrical thing: a column of smoke. ∎  an upright shaft forming part of a machine and typically used for controlling it: a Spitfire control column.2. a vertical division of a page or text. ∎  a vertical arrangement of figures or other information. ∎  a section of a newspaper or magazine regularly devoted to a particular subject or written by a particular person.3. one or more lines of people or vehicles moving in the same direction. we walked in a column. ∎  Mil. a narrow-fronted deep formation of troops in successive lines. ∎  a military force deployed in such a formation. ∎  a similar formation of ships in a fleet or convoy.DERIVATIVES: co·lum·nar / kəˈləmnər/ adj.col·umned / ˈkäləmd/ adj.

column In architecture, a vertical post, supporting part of a building. A column may be free-standing, with a capital, base and shaft, or it may be partly attached to a wall. Triumphal columns such as Trajan's Column in Rome, have narrative reliefs to depict battle victories. Annulated columns, clustered together by rings or bands, were popular in medieval England. See also orders of architecture

Column

anything resembling a vertical or horizontal column; an upright mass of water or air. See also pillar.

Examples: column of accountants—Lipton, 1970; of air, 1833; of atmosphere, 1700; of infantry [on the march]; of majesty, 1619; of mercury, 1878; of numbers of ships, 1805; of smoke, 1715; of society, 1862; of state, 1725; of troops, 1677.

column pillar XV; vertical division of a page, etc. XV. Partly — OF. columpne (mod. colonne), partly — its source L. columna pillar, f. *col-, var. of *cel-, as in *cellere (see EXCEL), celsus high.
So columnar XVIII, columniated XVIII, columniation XVII.