- 1 a room for one or more prisoners in a prison or police station see also padded cell Wordfinderprisoncell, death row, discharge, justice, parole, prison, probation, remission, sentence, warder Oxford Collocations Dictionary adjectivemonk’s, nun’s, jail, … prepositionin a/the cell See full entry See related entries: Prison
- 2 a small room without much furniture in which a monk or nun lives Oxford Collocations Dictionary adjectivemonk’s, nun’s, jail, … prepositionin a/the cell See full entry
- 3 the smallest unit of living matter that can exist on its own. All plants and animals are made up of cells. blood cells the nucleus of a cell see also stem cell Wordfinderbiologybiology, biotechnology, breed, cell, chromosome, DNA, gene, mutation, organism, protein Oxford Collocations Dictionary adjectivedead, living, healthy, … verb + cellcreate, form, grow, … cell + verbdivide, develop, form, … cell + noundivision, growth, proliferation, … phrasesthe nucleus of a cell See full entry See related entries: Cell biology
- 4each of the small sections that together form a larger structure, for example a honeycomb
- 5a device for producing an electric current, for example by the action of chemicals or light a photoelectric cell
- 6a small group of people who work as part of a larger political organization, especially secretly a terrorist cell
- 7one of the small squares in a spreadsheet computer program in which you enter a single piece of data
- 8(informal, especially North American English) = cell phone Word OriginOld English, from Old French celle or Latin cella ‘storeroom or chamber’.Extra examples Cells divide and form new cells. red and white blood cells the proliferation of cells in leukaemia
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