Cell Meaning
/sɛl/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA single-room dwelling for a hermit.
nounA small monastery or nunnery dependent on a larger religious establishment.
Sentence Examples
How can you have a laptop and not a cell phone?
Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my cell phone in the restaurant!
The organism begins as a single cell and grows by cell division.
CEFR Practice Quiz
In biology class, we observed a single ____ under the microscope to study its nucleus.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
A biological ____ is the basic unit of all known living organisms.
Word Origin & History
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.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"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:
"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:
"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:
"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:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
In biology class, we observed a single ____ under the microscope to study its nucleus.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
A biological ____ is the basic unit of all known living organisms.