noun /ˈkɒləm,ˈkɑːləm/
a) A solid upright structure designed usually to support a larger structure above it, such as a roof or horizontal beam, but sometimes for decoration.
It was too hard to read the text across the whole page, so I split it into two columns.
b) A vertical line of entries in a table, usually read from top to bottom: as opposed to a row (which is horizontal).
Each column inch costs $300 a week; this ad is four columns by three inches, so will run $3600 a week.
Wikipedia foundation.