cell

CEFRC1

/sɛl/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    The smallest basic unit of a living thing.

  2. 02

    noun

    A small room, such as in a prison or monastery.

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!

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5
Synonyms
1

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

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

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

  3. A single-room dwelling for a hermit.

More examples

In context

  • The organism begins as a single cell and grows by cell division.

  • Gregor Mendel must have spent a good amount of time outside of his cell.

  • The combatants spent the night in separate cells.

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

In biology class, we observed a single blank under the microscope to study its nucleus.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

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.