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cell
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- pronunciation:
- sel
- features:
- Homophone Note, Word History, Word Explorer
| part of speech: |
noun |
| definition 1: |
Cells are very, very small living things that make up every part of your body. Your skin, your bones, and your muscles, for example, are all made out of cells. Cells are also the building blocks of all other living things. A leaf, a tiger's tooth, a seed, the fur of a dog, an elephant's ear--every living thing you can think of is made out of cells.
Did you know that cells are so small that you can't see them without a microscope?
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| definition 2: |
A cell is a very small room that someone stays in or lives inside. Prisoners in jails live in cells. Very religious people who live in a community by themselves usually have cells too, but they use them mostly for sleeping and praying.
The guard took the prisoner back to his cell. |
| related words: |
booth, cabin, compartment |
The words cell and sell sound alike but have different meanings.
Cell comes from celare, a Latin word that means "to hide." By the 1300s, "cell" meant "small monastery" or "small room." In the late 1300s, it was used for the compartments that the brain was thought to be separated into. The current use of the word "cell" in biology first occurred in 1845.
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grows in cell |
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virus |
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includes the study of cells |
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biology |
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person who studies cells |
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scientist |
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some examples of cells |
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egg |
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some means for categorizing cells |
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function, structure |
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some parts of cells |
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membrane |
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some things composed of cells |
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blood, gland, organ, tissue |
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some things composed of only one cell |
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bacteria |
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some things found in cells |
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carbohydrate, carbon, fat, hydrogen, oxygen, protein, vitamin, water |
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some tools for studying cells |
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microscope, slide |
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