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cell

/sɛl/

noun

Meaning

  • A single-room dwelling for a hermit.

  • 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 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.

  • Any of various chambers in a tissue or organism having specific functions.

  • The discal cell of the wing of a lepidopteran insect.

  • Specifically, any of the supposed compartments of the brain, formerly thought to be the source of specific mental capacities, knowledge, or memories.

  • A section or compartment of a larger structure.

  • Any small dwelling; a remote nook, a den.

  • 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."

  • 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.

  • A small thunderstorm, caused by convection, that forms ahead of a storm front.

    "There is a powerful storm cell headed our way."

  • 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."

  • 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."

  • (communication) A short, fixed-length packet as in asynchronous transfer mode.

    "Virtual Channel number 5 received 170 cells."

  • (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."

  • A three-dimensional facet of a polytope.

  • The unit in a statistical array (a spreadsheet, for example) where a row and a column intersect.

  • The space between the ribs of a vaulted roof.

  • A cella.

  • An area of an insect wing bounded by veins

Synonyms

prison cell

verb

Meaning

  • To place or enclose in a cell.