colonne

Colonne is a term used in several languages, notably French and Italian, to designate a vertical pillar or a vertical arrangement of elements. In architecture, a column is a structural element that transmits loads from above to the foundation. Columns may be freestanding or engaged within a wall and are typically cylindrical, though they can be polygonal. The visible parts of a column include the shaft, the capital at the top, and the base at the bottom; the combination of these elements gives the column its distinctive profile. In classical architecture, columns are organized into orders—Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian—each with characteristic proportions and decorative capitals. A row of columns forming a covered walkway is called a colonnade, and a group of columns within a building is sometimes described as a portico or peristyle.

Columns have been made from a range of materials, from carved stone and wood in antiquity to reinforced concrete and steel in modern construction. The choice of material depends on structural requirements, aesthetics, and construction techniques. In engineering practice, columns are designed to support axial loads and may be subject to buckling, bending, and shear influences. The slenderness ratio, base conditions, connections, and foundations all influence column design and performance.

Beyond architecture, the term column appears in mathematics and computing. In matrices and vectors, a column (or colonne in French/Italian) is a vertical arrangement of elements. A column vector represents a single variable across multiple observations and serves as the transpose of a row vector. In databases and spreadsheets, a column stores data of a single property across records.

Colonne can also function as a geographic or personal name in some languages, but its primary technical meanings lie in architecture and linear algebra.