English
cell
Pronunciation Etymology 1

From Middle English celle, selle, from Old English cell (attested in inflected forms), from Latin cella, later reinforced by Old French cel, sele, Old French cele.

Noun

cell (plural cells)

  1. A single-room dwelling for a hermit. [from 10th c.]
    • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC ↗:
      So, taking them apart into his cell, / He to that point fit speaches gan to frame […].
    • 1764, Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto, section IV:
      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.
  2. (now historical) A small monastery or nunnery dependent on a larger religious establishment. [from 11th c.]
  3. A small room in a monastery or nunnery accommodating one person. [from 14th c.]
    Gregor Mendel must have spent a good amount of time outside of his cell.
  4. A room in a prison or jail for one or more inmates. [from 18th c.]
    Synonyms: prison cell
    The combatants spent the night in separate cells.
  5. Each of the small hexagonal compartments in a honeycomb. [from 14th c.]
  6. (biology, now, chiefly, botany) Any of various chambers in a tissue or organism having specific functions. [from 14th c.]
    • 1858, Asa Gray, Introduction to Structural and Systematic Botany, fifth edition, p. 282:
      Each of the two cells or lobes of the anther is marked with a lateral line or furrow, running from top to bottom […].
  7. (entomology) The discal cell of the wing of a lepidopteran insect.
  8. (obsolete) Specifically, any of the supposed compartments of the brain, formerly thought to be the source of specific mental capacities, knowledge, or memories. [14th]
    • 1782–1785, William Cowper, “(please specify the page)”, in The Task, a Poem, […], London: […] J[oseph] Johnson;  […], →OCLC ↗:
      How soft the music of those village bells / […] With easy force it opens all the cells / Where mem'ry slept.
    • 1794, Mary Wollstonecraft, An Historical and Moral View of the Origin and Progress of the French Revolution:
      [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.
    • 1890, Oscar Wilde, chapter XVI, in The Picture of Dorian Gray:
      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.
  9. A section or compartment of a larger structure. [from 16th c.]
  10. (obsolete, chiefly literary) Any small dwelling; a remote nook, a den. [16th]
    • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC ↗:
      Thou seest but the order and policie of this little Cell [translating caveau] wherein thou art placed […].
    • 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):
      Not long shall honour'd Douglas dwell, / Like hunted stag, in mountain-cell […].
  11. A device which stores electrical power; used either singly or together in batteries; the basic unit of a battery. [from 19th c.]
    This MP3 player runs on 2 AAA cells.
  12. (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.]
    • 2011, Terence Allen, Graham Cowling, The Cell: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford, page 3:
      In multicellular organisms, groups of cells form tissues and tissues come together to form organs.
  13. (meteorology) A small thunderstorm, caused by convection, that forms ahead of a storm front. [from 20th c.]
    There is a powerful storm cell headed our way.
  14. (cellular automata) The minimal unit of a cellular automaton that can change state and has an associated behavior. [from 20th c.]
    The upper right cell always starts with the color green.
  15. (card games) In FreeCell-type games, a space where one card can be placed.
  16. A small group of people forming part of a larger organization, often an outlawed one. [from 20th c.]
    Those three fellows are the local cell of that organization.
  17. (communication) A short, fixed-length packet, as in asynchronous transfer mode. [from 20th c.]
    Virtual Channel number 5 received 170 cells.
  18. (communication) A region of radio reception that is a part of a larger radio network.
    I get good reception in my home because it is near a cell tower.
  19. (geometry) A three-dimensional facet of a polytope.
  20. (statistics) The unit in a statistical array (a spreadsheet, for example) where a row and a column intersect.
  21. (architecture) The space between the ribs of a vaulted roof.
  22. (architecture) A cella.
  23. (entomology) An area of an insect wing bounded by veins.
Synonyms Related terms Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Verb

cell (cells, present participle celling; simple past and past participle celled)

  1. (transitive) To place or enclose in a cell.
Noun

cell (plural cells)

  1. (US, NZ, AU, Philippines, informal) A cellular phone.
Translations

This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.005
Offline English dictionary