cell meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

cell

noun

/sɛl/

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.

23 senses

1A single-room dwelling for a hermit.
2A small monastery or nunnery dependent on a larger…
3A small room in a monastery or nunnery accommodating one person.
4A room in a prison or jail for one or more inmates.
5Each of the small hexagonal compartments in a honeycomb.
6Any of various chambers in a tissue or organism having…
7The discal cell of the wing of a lepidopteran insect.
8Specifically, any of the supposed compartments of the…
9A section or compartment of a larger structure.
10Any small dwelling; a remote nook, a den.
11A device which stores electrical power; used either…
12The basic unit of a living organism, consisting of a…
13A small thunderstorm, caused by convection, that forms…
14The minimal unit of a cellular automaton that can change…
15In FreeCell-type games, a space where one card can be placed.
16A small group of people forming part of a larger…
17A short, fixed-length packet, as in asynchronous transfer mode.
18A region of radio reception, or the group of devices…
19A three-dimensional facet of a polytope.
20The unit in a statistical array (a spreadsheet, for…
21The space between the ribs of a vaulted roof.
22A cella.
23An area of an insect wing bounded by veins.

A single-room dwelling for a hermit.

So, taking them apart into his cell, / He to that point fit speaches gan to frame […].1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
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.1764, Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto, section IV:

Historical A small monastery or nunnery dependent on a larger religious establishment.

A small room in a monastery or nunnery accommodating one person.

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.2002, Jennifer Worth, Call the Midwife, Phoenix (2012), page 315:

A room in a prison or jail for one or more inmates.

The combatants spent the night in separate cells.

Each of the small hexagonal compartments in a honeycomb.

Biology, Botany, Natural sciences Any of various chambers in a tissue or organism having specific functions.

Each of the two cells or lobes of the anther is marked with a lateral line or furrow, running from top to bottom[…].1858, Asa Gray, Introduction to Structural and Systematic Botany, fifth edition, p. 282:

Biology, Entomology, Natural sciences 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.

How soft the music of those village bells / […] With easy force it opens all the cells / Where mem'ry slept.1782–1785, William Cowper, “(please specify the page)”, in The Task, a Poem, […], London: […] J[oseph] Johnson; […], →OCLC:
[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.1794, Mary Wollstonecraft, An Historical and Moral View of the Origin and Progress of the French Revolution:

1 more example

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.1890, Oscar Wilde, chapter XVI, in The Picture of Dorian Gray:

A section or compartment of a larger structure.

Literary, Obsolete Any small dwelling; a remote nook, a den.

Thou seest but the order and policie of this little Cell [translating caveau] wherein thou art placed[…].1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:
Not long shall honour'd Douglas dwell, / Like hunted stag, in mountain-cell[…].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):

A device which stores electrical power; used either singly or together in batteries; the basic unit of a battery.

This MP3 player runs on 2 AAA cells.

Biology, Natural sciences 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.

An American company has applied to experiment in Britain on Parkinson's disease sufferers by injecting their brains with cells from pigs.1999 February 15, Paul Brown, Dave King, The Guardian:
In multicellular organisms, groups of cells form tissues and tissues come together to form organs.2011, Terence Allen, Graham Cowling, The Cell: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford, page 3:

Climatology, Meteorology, Natural sciences A small thunderstorm, caused by convection, that forms ahead of a storm front.

There is a powerful storm cell headed our way.

Cellular automata, Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences The minimal unit of a cellular automaton that can change state and has an associated behavior.

The upper right cell always starts with the color green.
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.1988 January 26, David Hiebeler, “Fast way to update grids”, in comp.theory.cell-automata (Usenet):

2 more examples

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.)2010 March 10, Jean H., “What is CA for?”, in comp.theory.cell-automata (Usenet):
I've seen this space colloquially referred to as MAP (presumably since it maps a 3x3 neighborhood into a future cell state)2022 February 11, Mateon1, “Game of Life with real 8 neighbors”, in comp.theory.cell-automata (Usenet):

Card games, 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.

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.2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Salarians: Special Tasks Group Codex entry:

Communication, Communications A short, fixed-length packet, as in asynchronous transfer mode.

Virtual Channel number 5 received 170 cells.

Communications, Electrical engineering, Engineering, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Telecommunications A region of radio reception, or the group of devices that uses it, that is a part of a larger radio network.

I get good reception in my home because it is near a cell tower.

Geometry, Mathematics, Sciences A three-dimensional facet of a polytope.

Mathematics, Sciences, 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.

Biology, Entomology, Natural sciences An area of an insect wing bounded by veins.

Synonyms: cell, cyte
Derived terms: 349 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, 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, cellie, celliferous, celliform, cell junction, 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 tower, 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, 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, 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, Sertoli cell-only syndrome, 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, spinous 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: cellar, cellular, cellule, :Category:Cytology
Hyponyms: adipocyte, basophil, blood cell, brain cell, gamete, gametocyte, germ cell, granulocyte, leukocyte, lymphocyte, macrophage, mast cell, monocyte, myelocyte, neuron, oocyte, osteocyte, phagocyte, spermatocyte, thrombocyte, zygote, somatic cell
Holonyms: body, organ, tissue
Meronyms: organelle, nucleus, cytoplasm, cytosol, vacuole, mitochondrion, vesicle, cytoskeleton, chloroplast, lysosome

cell

verb

To place or enclose in a cell.

Myself a recluse from the world, And celled under ground, Lest that the gould, the precious stones, And pleasures, here be found1586, William Warner, Albion's England:

cell

noun

Etymology Ellipsis of cell phone, itself a clipping of cellular phone, from cellular + phone.

Australia, India, New Zealand, Philippines, US, Informal A cellular phone.