1. A long thick post made of steel, stone, etc., which is used as a support of a roof or for decorating the outer parts of a building: The building has a facade with beautiful marble columns.
2. A group of printed or written items; including, numbers or words that are shown under each other down a page: Cleo was told to add the first column of numbers.
3. Any of one or two (or more) sections of print which appear next to each other on a page and that are separated by a blank space or a line: The article consists of three columns, but the error is at the bottom of the first column.
4. An article in a newspaper or magazine which appears regularly and that is written by a particular writer or which deals with a particular subject or topic: Manfred writes a weekly column for the local newspaper.
5. That which is tall and thin in form or shape: The worried residents could see the columns of smoke rising up from the brush fire.
6. A long row of people or things: There was a column of cars going up the highway in the thunder storm.
7. Etymology: from the mid 15th century, "vertical division of a page"; also, "a pillar, a post", from Old French colombe, Modern French colonne, "column, pillar", from Latin columna, "pillar" and from a form of columen, "top, summit".

In computer programming, a method of defining a matrix by naming the elements one column at a time, as opposed to row order: The computer technician installed a new column order to facilitate the creation of textual content.

A "matrix" in this context is an array of symbols arranged in rows and columns.

An invasion conducted by army ants in branching columns: A column raid (boundaries or limits) is headed by a relatively small group of workers laying chemical trails and capturing prey.