CELL


Meaning of CELL in English

I. ˈsel noun

( -s )

Etymology: Middle English celle, from Old French, from Latin cella; akin to Latin celare to hide — more at hell

1. : a small religious house dependent on and at some distance from a monastery or convent

2.

a. : a dwelling of one room occupied by a solitary person (as a hermit)

b. : a single room usually housing only one person within a building having numerous similar rooms (as in a convent or in a prison)

c. : a small abode or enclosure (as the den of a wild animal)

d. : grave

each in his narrow cell for ever laid — Thomas Gray

3. : a compartment, hollow receptacle, or compartmentlike demarcation: as

a. : one of the compartments of a honeycomb

b. : a ring-shaped enclosure in which an object is secured for observation under a microscope

c. : the entire structure of the wings and wing trussing in an airplane on one side of the fuselage or between fuselages or nacelles when there is more than one

d. : a bag containing aerostatic gas in a balloon or airship

4.

a.

(1) : the bounding walls of a cell (sense 5) that has lost its living content — used especially of cavities in cork before the discovery of the protoplast

(2) : a calyculus enclosing a zooid in hydroids and corals

b. : a membranous area bounded by veins in the wing of an insect

c.

(1) : one of the cavities or compartments into which a compound ovary is partitioned or the whole interior of a monocarpellary ovary

(2) : theca 1b

5. : a small usually microscopic mass of protoplasm bounded externally by a semipermeable membrane, usually including one or more nuclei and various nonliving products of its activities (as ergastic granules or rigid external walls), and being capable alone or interacting with other cells of performing all the fundamental functions of life : the least structural aggregate of living matter capable of functioning as an independent unit : a protoplast with its derivative structures

6. : a cup, jar, or other vessel or a division of a compound vessel containing electrodes and an electrolyte either for generating electric currents by chemical action or for use in electrolysis — see primary cell , secondary cell , standard cell , storage cell

7.

a. : cella

b. : a space between ribs in a vaulted roof

c. : a compartment of a frame or truss

d. : an air space introduced into a piece of building material (as a cement block or hollow tile) for thermal insulation

8.

a. : a unit of a statistical array comprising a group of individuals and formed by the intersection of a column and a row

b. : a set in n-dimensional euclidean space homeomorphic to the closed or open set in space of the same number of dimensions that is analogous to the set of points included in a closed or open circle or sphere in two or three dimensions

a circle is a cell with respect to its interior

9. : a small group dedicated to the study and development of a social, religious, or political program ; especially : the smallest organizational unit of a proscribed or clandestine political party often located within and made up of employees of a particular business, industry, or school

10. : the oblong arrangement of braille dots in two vertical rows of three high and two wide which in various combinations represent letters, figures, punctuation marks, and other characters

11. : any portion of the atmosphere from a few cubic feet to many thousands of cubic miles in volume that moves or behaves as a unit despite varying conditions of temperature, humidity, and air movement inside of it and that takes part in a systematic circulation

12. : a single unit in a device for converting radiant energy into electrical energy or for varying the intensity of an electric current in accordance with radiation

[s]cell.jpg[/s] [

cell 5 (schematic): A plant, B animal; 1 cell wall, 2 middle lamella, 3 plasma membrane, 4 mitochondrion, 5 vacuole, 6 Golgi apparatus, 7 cytoplasm, 8 nuclear membrane, 9 nucleolus, 10 nucleus, 11 chromatin, 12 endoplasmic reticulum with associated ribosomes, 13 chloroplast, 14 centriole, 15 lysosome

]

II. verb

( -ed/-ing/-s )

intransitive verb

: to live in a cell

the anchorite celled underground

the embezzler celled with two other prisoners

transitive verb

of bees : to store (honey) in a comb

III.

variant of cel

IV. noun

1. : a basic subdivision of a computer memory that is addressable and can hold one basic operating unit (as a word)

2. : fuel cell herein

3. : a manufacturing unit that produces a group of related products

4. : any of the small sections of a geographic area of a cellular telephone system

Webster's New International English Dictionary.      Новый международный словарь английского языка Webster.