English Explanatory Dictionary

cell

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A single-room dwelling for a hermit.
  2. A small monastery or nunnery dependent on a larger religious establishment.
  3. A small room in a monastery or nunnery accommodating one person.
  4. A room in a prison or jail for one or more inmates.
  5. Each of the small hexagonal compartments in a honeycomb.
  6. Any of various chambers in a tissue or organism having specific functions.
  7. The discal cell of the wing of a lepidopteran insect.
  8. Specifically, any of the supposed compartments of the brain, formerly thought to be the source of specific mental capacities, knowledge, or memories.
  9. A section or compartment of a larger structure.
  10. Any small dwelling; a remote nook, a den.
  11. A device which stores electrical power; used either singly or together in batteries; the basic unit of a battery.
  12. The basic unit of a living organism, consisting of a quantity of protoplasm surrounded by a cell membrane, which is able to synthesize proteins and replicate itself.
verb
  1. To place or enclose in a cell.
noun
  1. A cellular phone.

Pronunciation

/sɛl/ En-us-cell.ogg LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-cell.wav

Word forms

cell cells celling celled

Etymology

From Middle English celle, selle, from Old English cell (attested in inflected forms), from Latin cella (“chamber, small room, compartment”), later reinforced by Old French cel, sele, Old French cele. Ultimately from Proto-Italic *kelnā, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱelneh₂, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱel- (“to cover”). Doublet of cella and hall.

Synonyms

cell cyte prison cell

Related words

cellar cellular cellule :Category:Cytology

Derived words

120-cell 16-cell 24-cell 57-cell 5-cell 600-cell 8-cell absorption cell air cell alpha cell angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma antigen-presenting cell APUD cell attocell auxiliary cell band cell barycell basal cell basal cell carcinoma basket cell battery cell B cell B-cell Bénard cell beta cell Betz cell biological fuel cell bipolar cell bite cell black queen cell virus blast cell blister cell blood-cell blood cell brain cell brood cell bulliform cell Bunsen cell burr cell button cell cancer cell Castner cell caudodorsal cell hormone cell-adhesion molecule cell adhesion molecule cell block cellblock cell body cellbound cell-cell junction cellco cell count cell cycle cell death cell division cell-free cellful cell group cell house cellhouse

Translations

Afrikaans: sel Albanian: birucë Albanian: qeli Arabic: زِنْزَانَة Belarusian: ка́мера Bulgarian: кили́я Burmese: အချုပ်ခန်း Catalan: calabós Catalan: cel·la Chinese Mandarin: 牢房 Chinese Mandarin: 獨房 /独房 Chinese Mandarin: 囚室 Cornish: kell Czech: cela Danish: celle Dutch: cel Faroese: fangarúm Faroese: klivi Finnish: selli Finnish: tyrmä French: cellule Galician: cela Georgian: საკანი German: Zelle German: Haftraum Greek: κελί Hebrew: תָּא Hungarian: cella Hungarian: zárka Hungarian: börtöncella Icelandic: klefi Icelandic: fangaklefi Indonesian: sel Irish: cillín Italian: cella Japanese: 独房 Khmer: កោសិកា Korean: 독방 Lao: ກ້ອງຂັງ Latvian: kamera Lithuanian: kamera Macedonian: ќелија Malay: sel Malayalam: ജയിലറ Maltese: ċella Manx: killeen Norman: cachot Norwegian Bokmål: celle Iranian Persian: حُجْرِه Iranian Persian: سِلول Iranian Persian: سِلّول Polish: cela
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