cell
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /sɛl/
homophone: cel
homophone: sell
rhymes: -ɛl
Forms: form: cells
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.
Senses: examples: text: So, taking them apart into his cell, / He to that point fit speaches gan to frame […].
ref: 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
text: 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.
ref: 1764, Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto, section IV:
glosses: A single-room dwelling for a hermit.
glosses: A small monastery or nunnery dependent on a larger religious establishment.
examples: text: Gregor Mendel must have spent a good amount of time outside of his cell.
text: A nunʼs bedroom is properly called a cell and is small, bare, and plain, without comfort.
ref: 2002, Jennifer Worth, Call the Midwife, Phoenix (2012), page 315:
glosses: A small room in a monastery or nunnery accommodating one person.
examples: text: The combatants spent the night in separate cells.
synonyms: prison cell
glosses: A room in a prison or jail for one or more inmates.
glosses: Each of the small hexagonal compartments in a honeycomb.
examples: text: Each of the two cells or lobes of the anther is marked with a lateral line or furrow, running from top to bottom[…].
ref: 1858, Asa Gray, Introduction to Structural and Systematic Botany, fifth edition, p. 282:
topics: biology
botany
natural-sciences
glosses: Any of various chambers in a tissue or organism having specific functions.
topics: biology
entomology
natural-sciences
glosses: The discal cell of the wing of a lepidopteran insect.
examples: text: How soft the music of those village bells / […] With easy force it opens all the cells / Where mem'ry slept.
ref: 1782–1785, William Cowper, “(please specify the page)”, in The Task, a Poem, […], London: […] J[oseph] Johnson; […], →OCLC:
text: [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.
ref: 1794, Mary Wollstonecraft, An Historical and Moral View of the Origin and Progress of the French Revolution:
text: 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.
ref: 1890, Oscar Wilde, chapter XVI, in The Picture of Dorian Gray:
glosses: Specifically, any of the supposed compartments of the brain, formerly thought to be the source of specific mental capacities, knowledge, or memories.
glosses: A section or compartment of a larger structure.
examples: text: Thou seest but the order and policie of this little Cell [translating caveau] wherein thou art placed[…].
ref: 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:
text: Not long shall honour'd Douglas dwell, / Like hunted stag, in mountain-cell[…].
ref: 1810, Walter Scott, “Canto II. The Island.”, in The Lady of the Lake; […], Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for John Ballantyne and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, and William Miller, →OCLC, (please specify the stanza number):
glosses: Any small dwelling; a remote nook, a den.
examples: text: This MP3 player runs on 2 AAA cells.
glosses: A device which stores electrical power; used either singly or together in batteries; the basic unit of a battery.
examples: text: An American company has applied to experiment in Britain on Parkinson's disease sufferers by injecting their brains with cells from pigs.
ref: 1999 February 15, Paul Brown, Dave King, The Guardian:
text: In multicellular organisms, groups of cells form tissues and tissues come together to form organs.
ref: 2011, Terence Allen, Graham Cowling, The Cell: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford, page 3:
topics: biology
natural-sciences
glosses: 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.
examples: text: There is a powerful storm cell headed our way.
topics: climatology
meteorology
natural-sciences
glosses: A small thunderstorm, caused by convection, that forms ahead of a storm front.
examples: text: The upper right cell always starts with the color green.
text: Basically, I'm looking for a fast (the fastest?) way of updating grids, where each cell has to look at an arbitrary number of its neighbors.
ref: 1988 January 26, David Hiebeler, “Fast way to update grids”, in comp.theory.cell-automata (Usenet):
text: 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 (for example, a cell that is "agriculture" but has 3 urban neighbors will likely become urban, while if it is surrounded by forest or other agriculture cells, it will remain agriculture.)
ref: 2010 March 10, Jean H., “What is CA for?”, in comp.theory.cell-automata (Usenet):
text: I've seen this space colloqually referred to as MAP (presumably since it maps a 3x3 neighborhood into a future cell state)
ref: 2022 February 11, Mateon1, “Game of Life with real 8 neighbors”, in comp.theory.cell-automata (Usenet):
topics: cellular-automata
computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: The minimal unit of a cellular automaton that can change state and has an associated behavior.
topics: card-games
games
glosses: In FreeCell-type games, a space where one card can be placed.
examples: text: Those three fellows are the local cell of that organization.
text: 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.
ref: 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Salarians: Special Tasks Group Codex entry:
glosses: A small group of people forming part of a larger organization, often an outlawed one.
examples: text: Virtual Channel number 5 received 170 cells.
topics: communication
communications
glosses: A short, fixed-length packet, as in asynchronous transfer mode.
examples: text: I get good reception in my home because it is near a cell tower.
topics: communication
communications
glosses: A region of radio reception that is a part of a larger radio network.
topics: geometry
mathematics
sciences
glosses: A three-dimensional facet of a polytope.
topics: mathematics
sciences
statistics
glosses: The unit in a statistical array (a spreadsheet, for example) where a row and a column intersect.
topics: architecture
glosses: The space between the ribs of a vaulted roof.
topics: architecture
glosses: A cella.
topics: biology
entomology
natural-sciences
glosses: An area of an insect wing bounded by veins.
Synonyms: word: cell
word: cyte
Hyponyms: word: adipocyte
word: basophil
word: blood cell
word: brain cell
word: gamete
word: gametocyte
word: germ cell
word: granulocyte
word: leukocyte
word: lymphocyte
word: macrophage
word: mast cell
word: monocyte
word: myelocyte
word: neuron
word: oocyte
word: osteocyte
word: phagocyte
word: spermatocyte
word: thrombocyte
word: zygote
word: somatic cell
Meronyms: word: organelle
word: nucleus
word: cytoplasm
word: cytosol
word: vacuole
word: mitochondrion
word: vesicle
word: cytoskeleton
word: chloroplast
word: lysosome
Derived terms: 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
cellblock
cell block
cell body
cellbound
cellco
cell count
cell cycle
cell death
cell division
cell-free
cellful
cell group
cell house
cellhouse
cellie
celliferous
celliform
cellless
cell line
cellmate
cell-mediated immune response
cell-mediated immunity
cell membrane
cell nucleus
cell of Deiters
cellome
cell-oriented programming
cell-phone
cell phone lot
cell plate
cell sap
cell shading
cellspot
cell theory
cell therapy
cell type
cell up
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
connecting cell
cons cell
convection cell
counting cell hemocytometer
crowfoot cell
crystal cell
cytolytic T cell
cytotoxic T cell
Daniell cell
daughter cell
death cell
Deiters' cell
delta cell
dendritic cell
detention cell
diamond anvil cell
diaphragm cell
diffuse large B-cell lymphoma
direct-to-cell
Downey cell
Downs cell
dry cell
dry cell battery
egg cell
electrochemical cell
enzymatic fuel cell
epithelial 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
grit cell
Grove cell
guard cell
guardian cell
Hadley cell
hair cell
hairy cell
half-cell
half cell
Hargreaves-Bird cell
head cell
HeLa cell
helper T cell
hematopoietic cell
holding cell
Hooker cell
host cell
hot cell
hypercell
immune cell
inner cell mass
intercell
intracell
intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cell
IT cell
jail cell
Jurkat cell
K-cell
k-cell
Kenyon cell
Kerr cell
killer T cell
koniocellular cell
Kupffer cell
Langerhans cell
lasso cell
Leclanché cell
Leydig cell
light green cell hormone
lip cell
load cell
local cell
macrocell
macroglial cell
magnocellular cell
Malpighian cell
mast cell
mastoid cell
M-cell
megaspore mother cell
melanopsin-containing retinal ganglion cell
memory B cell
memory cell
memory T cell
Merkel cell
Merkel-Ranvier cell
mesenchymal cell
mesenchymal stem cell
metacell
Mexican hat cell
microbial fuel cell
microcell
mid cell
midcell
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
outer phalangeal cell
padded cell
Paget cell
palisade cell
Paneth cell
parasol cell
parietal cell
parvocellular cell
pavement cell
P-cell
pericentral cell
photo-cell
photocell
photoconductive cell
photoelectric cell
photoemissive cell
photosensitive retinal ganglion cell
photovoltaic cell
picocell
place cell
plasma cell
PMN cell
polycell
polymorphonuclear cell
precell
prickle cell
primary cell wall
primordial cell
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
reproductive cell
retort cell
rod cell
satellite cell
Schwann cell
secondary cell
secondary cell wall
segment cell
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
sieve cell
single-celling
skin cell
sleeper cell
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
stone cell
storage cell
strip cell
stromal cell
subcell
supercell
supergranulation cell
target cell
T-cell
T cell
terror cell
T helper cell
tracheid cell
Traube 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: word: cellar
word: cellular
word: cellule
word: :Category:Cytology