Column

Column, in architecture, a rounded pillar with a base, shaft, and capital (q.v.). Occasionally a column stands alone as a monument (as in the Nelson column in Trafalgar Square), or is a purely ornamental adjunct to a building (as in the Taylorian Institution at Oxford). In Gothic and Norman architecture a column usually supports one side of an arch, in classic architecture the entablature (q.v.). In military language, the column is the formation of the army when marching or manoeuvring.