Etimology
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.
noun
cell (plural cells)
A single-room dwelling for a hermit. [from 10th c.]
(now historical) A small monastery or nunnery dependent on a larger religious establishment. [from 11th c.]
A small room in a monastery or nunnery accommodating one person. [from 14th c.]
A room in a prison or jail for one or more inmates. [from 18th c.]
Each of the small hexagonal compartments in a honeycomb. [from 14th c.]
(biology, now chiefly botany) Any of various chambers in a tissue or organism having specific functions. [from 14th c.]
(entomology) The discal cell of the wing of a lepidopteran insect.
(obsolete) Specifically, any of the supposed compartments of the brain, formerly thought to be the source of specific mental capacities, knowledge, or memories. [14th–19th c.]
A section or compartment of a larger structure. [from 16th c.]
(obsolete, chiefly literary) Any small dwelling; a remote nook, a den. [16th–19th c.]
A device which stores electrical power; used either singly or together in batteries; the basic unit of a battery. [from 19th c.]
(biology) 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. [from 19th c.]
(meteorology) A small thunderstorm, caused by convection, that forms ahead of a storm front. [from 20th c.]
(cellular automata) The minimal unit of a cellular automaton that can change state and has an associated behavior. [from 20th c.]
(card games) In FreeCell-type games, a space where one card can be placed.
A small group of people forming part of a larger organization, often an outlawed one. [from 20th c.]
(communication) A short, fixed-length packet, as in asynchronous transfer mode. [from 20th c.]
(communication) A region of radio reception that is a part of a larger radio network.
(geometry) A three-dimensional facet of a polytope.
(statistics) The unit in a statistical array (a spreadsheet, for example) where a row and a column intersect.
(architecture) The space between the ribs of a vaulted roof.
(architecture) A cella.
(entomology) An area of an insect wing bounded by veins.
Examples
So, taking them apart into his cell, / He to that point fit speaches gan to frame […].
For three days he and his attendants had wandered in the forest without seeing a human form: but on the evening of the third they came to a cell, in which they found a venerable hermit in the agonies of death.
Gregor Mendel must have spent a good amount of time outside of his cell.
A nunʼs bedroom is properly called a cell and is small, bare, and plain, without comfort.
Synonym: prison cell
The combatants spent the night in separate cells.
Each of the two cells or lobes of the anther is marked with a lateral line or furrow, running from top to bottom […].
How soft the music of those village bells / […] With easy force it opens all the cells / Where mem'ry slept.
[W]e shall feel still more contempt for the order of men, who cultivated their faculties, only to enable them to consolidate their power, by leading the ignorant astray; making the learning they concentrated in their cells, a more polished instrument of oppression.
From cell to cell of his brain crept the one thought; and the wild desire to live, most terrible of all man's appetites, quickened into force each trembling nerve and fibre.
Thou seest but the order and policie of this little Cell [translating caveau] wherein thou art placed […].
Not long shall honour'd Douglas dwell, / Like hunted stag, in mountain-cell […].
This MP3 player runs on 2 AAA cells.
An American company has applied to experiment in Britain on Parkinson's disease sufferers by injecting their brains with cells from pigs.
In multicellular organisms, groups of cells form tissues and tissues come together to form organs.
There is a powerful storm cell headed our way.
The upper right cell always starts with the color green.
Basically, I'm looking for a fast way of updating grids, where each cell has to look at an arbitrary number of its neighbors.
It is used for land-use change simulations, where the content of the cells surrounding a central cell defines how this cell is going to evolve
I've seen this space colloqually referred to as MAP
Those three fellows are the local cell of that organization.
Salarian intelligence field agents are grouped into an organization called the Special Tasks Group. STG operators work in independent cells, performing dangerous missions such as counter-terrorism, infiltration, reconnaissance, assassination, and sabotage.
Virtual Channel number 5 received 170 cells.
I get good reception in my home because it is near a cell tower.
Related words
synonyms
See also Thesaurus:cell
hyponyms
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
band cell
barycell
basal cell
basal cell carcinoma
basket cell
battery cell
B-cell
B 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
bulliform cell
Bunsen cell
burr cell
button cell
cancer cell
caudodorsal cell hormone
cell-adhesion molecule
cell adhesion molecule
cellblock
cell block
cell body
cellbound
cellco
cell count
cell cycle
cell death
cell division
cell-free
cellful
cell group
cellhouse
cell house
cellie
celliferous
celliform
cellless
cell line
cellmate
cell-mediated immune response
cell-mediated immunity
cell membrane
cell nucleus
cell of Deiters
cellome
cell-phone
cell phone lot
cell plate
cell sap
cell shading
cellspot
cell theory
cell therapy
cell type
cell wall
cell-wall
cellwide
cellwise
cellwork
celly
cell yell
character cell
chemical cell
chief cell
Chinese hamster ovary cell
chloragogen cell
CHO cell
Clara cell
Clark cell
club cell
coin cell
companion cell
concentration cell
cone cell
cons cell
convection cell
counting cell hemocytometer
crowfoot cell
cytolytic T cell
cytotoxic T cell
Daniell cell
daughter cell
Deiters' cell
delta cell
dendritic cell
detention cell
diamond anvil cell
diaphragm cell
diffuse large B-cell lymphoma
Downey cell
Downs cell
dry cell
dry cell battery
egg cell
electrochemical cell
enzymatic fuel cell
fat cell
femtocell
Ferrata cell
flame cell
flow cell
foam cell
follicular dendritic cell
free cell formation
fuel cell
fuel cell vehicle
galvanic cell
geocell
germ cell
glial cell
glue cell
goblet cell
grand 600-cell
grandmother cell
granular cell tumor
granule cell
grape cell
gravity cell
grid cell
Grove cell
guard cell
Hadley cell
hair cell
hairy cell
half cell
half-cell
Hargreaves-Bird cell
HeLa cell
helper T cell
hematopoietic cell
holding cell
Hooker cell
host cell
hot cell
hypercell
inner cell mass
intercell
intracell
intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cell
IT cell
jail cell
Jurkat cell
k-cell
Kenyon cell
Kerr cell
killer T cell
Kupffer cell
Langerhans cell
lasso cell
Leclanché cell
Leydig cell
light green cell hormone
load cell
local cell
macrocell
macroglial cell
mast cell
mastoid cell
megaspore mother cell
melanopsin-containing retinal ganglion cell
memory B cell
memory cell
memory T cell
Merkel cell
Merkel-Ranvier cell
metacell
Mexican hat cell
microbial fuel cell
microcell
midcell
mid cell
midget cell
minicell
mitral cell
morula cell
mossy cell
mother cell
Mott cell
multicell
myeloid cell
nanocell
natural killer cell
nerve cell
nevoid basal-cell carcinoma syndrome
nevoid basal cell carcinoma syndrome
noncell
oat cell
obcell
padded cell
palisade cell
Paneth cell
parasol cell
parietal cell
pavement cell
photocell
photo-cell
photoconductive cell
photoelectric cell
photoemissive cell
photosensitive retinal ganglion cell
photovoltaic cell
picocell
place cell
plasma cell
PMN cell
polycell
precell
prickle cell
primary cell wall
prison cell
progenitor cell
programmed cell death
protocell
pseudocell
Purkinje cell
pyramidal cell
queen cell
radial glial cell
red blood cell
red blood cell cast
red cell
Reed-Sternberg cell
renal cell carcinoma
Renshaw cell
rod cell
satellite cell
Schwann cell
secondary cell wall
selenium cell
semicell
sensel
Sertoli cell
sex cell
sickle cell
sickle cell anaemia
sickle-cell anaemia
sickle-cell anemia
sickle-cell disease
sickle cell trait
sickle cell trait
sieve cell
single-celling
skin cell
sleeper cell
small-cell carcinoma
small-cell carcinoma
smudge cell
solar cell
somatic cell
somatic cell nuclear transfer
sperm cell
spindle cell
spur cell
stab cell
stellate cell
stem-cell
stem cell
storage cell
subcell
supercell
supergranulation cell
target cell
T cell
T-cell
terror cell
T helper cell
tracheid cell
trophic cell
Türk cell
unicell
unit cell
vegetative cell
Virchow's cell
virocell
voltaic cell
Vorce cell
Voronoi cell
Walthard cell rest
water cell
Weston cell
wet cell
white blood cell
white cell
white-cell
Wigner-Seitz cell
zombie cell
related terms
cellar
cellular
cellule
verb
cell (third-person singular simple present cells, present participle celling, simple past and past participle celled)
(transitive) To place or enclose in a cell.
Examples
Myself a recluse from the world, And celled under ground, Lest that the gould, the precious stones, And pleasures, here be found
Etimology
From cell phone, from cellular phone, from cellular + telephone.
noun
cell (plural cells)
(US, New Zealand, Australia, Philippines, informal) A cellular phone.