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Webster 1913 Edition

Cell

Cell

,
Noun.
[OF.
celle
, fr. L.
cella
; akin to
celare
to hide, and E.
hell
,
helm
,
conceal
. Cf.
Hall
.]
1.
A very small and close apartment, as in a prison or in a monastery or convent; the hut of a hermit.
The heroic confessor in his
cell
.
Macaulay.
2.
A small religious house attached to a monastery or convent.
“Cells or dependent priories.”
Milman.
3.
Any small cavity, or hollow place.
4.
(Arch.)
(a)
The space between the ribs of a vaulted roof.
(b)
Same as
Cella
.
5.
(Elec.)
A jar of vessel, or a division of a compound vessel, for holding the exciting fluid of a battery.
6.
(Biol.)
One of the minute elementary structures, of which the greater part of the various tissues and organs of animals and plants are composed.
☞ All cells have their origin in the primary cell from which the organism was developed. In the lowest animal and vegetable forms, one single cell constitutes the complete individual, such being called unicelluter orgamisms. A typical cell is composed of a semifluid mass of protoplasm, more or less granular, generally containing in its center a nucleus which in turn frequently contains one or more nucleoli, the whole being surrounded by a thin membrane, the cell wall. In some cells, as in those of blood, in the amœba, and in embryonic cells (both vegetable and animal), there is no restricting cell wall, while in some of the unicelluliar organisms the nucleus is wholly wanting. See Illust. of
Bipolar
.
Air cell
.
See
Air cell
.
–
Cell development
(called also
cell genesis
,
cell formation
, and
cytogenesis
), the multiplication, of cells by a process of reproduction under the following common forms; segmentation or fission, gemmation or budding, karyokinesis, and endogenous multiplication. See
Segmentation
,
Gemmation
, etc.
–
Cell theory
.
(Biol.)
See
Cellular theory
, under
Cellular
.

Cell

(sĕl)
,
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Celled
(sĕld)
.]
To place or inclose in a cell.
“Celled under ground.”
[R.]
Warner.

Webster 1828 Edition

Cell

CELL

, n.
1.
A small or close apartment, as in a prison, or a bath.
2.
A cottage; a cave; a small or mean place of residence.
3.
A small cavity or hollow place, variously applied; as the cells of the brain; the cells of a honey comb, &c.
4.
In botany, a hollow place in a pericarp, particularly in a capsule, in which seeds are lodged. According to the number of these cells, pericarps are called unilocular, bilocular, trilocular, &c.
5.
In anatomy, a little bag, or bladder, containing fluid or other matter; as the adipose cells, containing fat.
6.
A religious house.

Definition 2024

cell

cell

English

Noun

cell ‎(plural cells)

  1. A single-room dwelling for a hermit. [from 10th c.]
    • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, VI.6:
      So, taking them apart into his cell, / He to that point fit speaches gan to frame […].
  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. Each of the small hexagonal compartments in a honeycomb. [from 14th c.]
  5. (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 […].
  6. (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.]
    • 1890, Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, ch.XVI:
      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.
  7. A section or compartment of a larger structure. [from 16th c.]
  8. (obsolete, chiefly literary) Any small dwelling; a remote nook, a den. [16th-19th c.]
  9. A room in a prison or jail for one or more inmates. [from 18th c.]
    The combatants spent the night in separate cells.
  10. 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.
  11. (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.]
    • 1999, Paul Brown & Dave King, The Guardian, 15 Feb 1999:
      An American company has applied to experiment in Britain on Parkinson's disease sufferers by injecting their brains with cells from pigs.
    • 2011, Terence Allen & Graham Cowling, The Cell: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford 2011, p. 3:
      In multicellular organisms, groups of cells form tissues and tissues come together to form organs.
  12. (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.
  13. (computing) 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.
  14. (card games) In FreeCell-type games, a space where one card can be placed.
  15. 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.
  16. (communication) A short, fixed-length packet as in asynchronous transfer mode. [from 20th c.]
    Virtual Channel number 5 received 170 cells.
  17. (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.
  18. (geometry) A three-dimensional facet of a polytope.
  19. (statistics) The unit in a statistical array (a spreadsheet, for example) where a row and a column intersect.
  20. (architecture) The space between the ribs of a vaulted roof.
  21. (architecture) A cella.
  22. (entomology) An area of an insect wing bounded by veins
Usage notes

In the sense of an electrical device, "cell" is the technically correct name for a single unit of battery-type power storage, whereas a battery is a device comprising multiple of them, though it is often used for simple cells.

Quotations
  • For usage examples of this term, see Citations:cell.
Synonyms
  • See also Wikisaurus:cell
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations

Verb

cell ‎(third-person singular simple present cells, present participle celling, simple past and past participle celled)

  1. (transitive) To place or enclose in a cell.
    • Warner
      Celled under ground.

Etymology 2

From cell phone, from cellular phone, from cellular + telephone

Noun

cell ‎(plural cells)

  1. (US, informal) A cellular phone.
Usage notes
  • Widely used attributively.
Translations

Old Irish

Etymology

Borrowing from Latin cella.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /kʲel͈/

Noun

cell f

  1. church

Inflection

Feminine ā-stem
Singular Dual Plural
Nominative
Vocative
Accusative
Genitive
Dative
Initial mutations of a following adjective:
  • H = triggers aspiration
  • L = triggers lenition
  • N = triggers nasalization

Descendants

Mutation

Old Irish mutation
Radical Lenition Nasalization
cell chell cell
pronounced with /ɡ(ʲ)-/
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every
possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

References

  • “cell” in Dictionary of the Irish Language, Royal Irish Academy, 1913–76.

Swedish

Pronunciation

Noun

cell c

  1. cell; a room in a prison.
  2. Cell; a room in a monastery for sleeping one person.
  3. Cell; a small group of people forming part of a larger organization.
  4. (biology) Cell; the basic unit of a living organism.
  5. (biology) Cell; an cavity in a structure such as a honeycomb.
  6. (computing) Cell; a minimal unit of a cellular automaton.

Declension

Inflection of cell 
Singular Plural
Indefinite Definite Indefinite Definite
Nominative cell cellen celler cellerna
Genitive cells cellens cellers cellernas

Welsh

Etymology

Borrowing from Latin cella.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /kɛɬ/

Noun

cell f (plural celloedd)

  1. cell
  2. Often used as the second part of a compound word denoting a place, i.e. llyfrgell (library), literally "llyfr" (book) + "cell".

Mutation

Welsh mutation
radical soft nasal aspirate
cell gell nghell chell
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every
possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Etymology

From Middle English celle, selle, from Old English *cella (attested in inflected forms), from Latin cella ‎(“chamber, small room, compartment”), later reinforced by Anglo-Norman cel, sele, Old French cele.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /sɛl/
  • Homophones: cel, sell

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