cell

Etymology 1

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.

noun

1. A single-room dwelling for a hermit.
   For three days he and his attendants had wandered in the forest without seeing a human form: but on the evening of the third they came to a cell, in which they found a venerable hermit in the agonies of death. 1764, Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto, section IV
2. (now historical) A small monastery or nunnery dependent on a larger religious establishment.
3. 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 nunʼs bedroom is properly called a cell and is small, bare, and plain, without comfort. 2002, Jennifer Worth, Call the Midwife, Phoenix (2012), page 315
4. A room in a prison or jail for one or more inmates.
   The combatants spent the night in separate cells.
5. Each of the small hexagonal compartments in a honeycomb.
6. (biology, now chiefly botany) Any of various chambers in a tissue or organism having specific functions.
   Each of the two cells or lobes of the anther is marked with a lateral line or furrow, running from top to bottom[…]. 1858, Asa Gray, Introduction to Structural and Systematic Botany, fifth edition, p. 282
7. (entomology) The discal cell of the wing of a lepidopteran insect.
8. (obsolete) Specifically, any of the supposed compartments of the brain, formerly thought to be the source of specific mental capacities, knowledge, or memories.
   [W]e shall feel still more contempt for the order of men, who cultivated their faculties, only to enable them to consolidate their power, by leading the ignorant astray; making the learning they concentrated in their cells, a more polished instrument of oppression. 1794, Mary Wollstonecraft, An Historical and Moral View of the Origin and Progress of the French Revolution
   From cell to cell of his brain crept the one thought; and the wild desire to live, most terrible of all man's appetites, quickened into force each trembling nerve and fibre. 1890, Oscar Wilde, chapter XVI, in The Picture of Dorian Gray
9. A section or compartment of a larger structure.
10. (obsolete, chiefly literary) Any small dwelling; a remote nook, a den.
11. 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.
12. (biology) 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.
    An American company has applied to experiment in Britain on Parkinson's disease sufferers by injecting their brains with cells from pigs. 15 Feb 1999, Paul Brown, Dave King, The Guardian
    In multicellular organisms, groups of cells form tissues and tissues come together to form organs. 2011, Terence Allen, Graham Cowling, The Cell: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford, page 3
13. (meteorology) A small thunderstorm, caused by convection, that forms ahead of a storm front.
    There is a powerful storm cell headed our way.
14. (cellular automata) 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.
    Basically, I'm looking for a fast (the fastest?) way of updating grids, where each cell has to look at an arbitrary number of its neighbors. 1988-01-26, David Hiebeler, “Fast way to update grids”, in comp.theory.cell-automata (Usenet)
    It is used for land-use change simulations, where the content of the cells surrounding a central cell defines how this cell is going to evolve (for example, a cell that is "agriculture" but has 3 urban neighbors will likely become urban, while if it is surrounded by forest or other agriculture cells, it will remain agriculture.) 2010-03-10, Jean H., “What is CA for?”, in comp.theory.cell-automata (Usenet)
    I've seen this space colloqually referred to as MAP (presumably since it maps a 3x3 neighborhood into a future cell state) 2022-02-11, Mateon1, “Game of Life with real 8 neighbors”, in comp.theory.cell-automata (Usenet)
15. (card games) In FreeCell-type games, a space where one card can be placed.
16. 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.
    Salarian intelligence field agents are grouped into an organization called the Special Tasks Group. STG operators work in independent cells, performing dangerous missions such as counter-terrorism, infiltration, reconnaissance, assassination, and sabotage. 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Salarians: Special Tasks Group Codex entry
17. (communication) A short, fixed-length packet, as in asynchronous transfer mode.
    Virtual Channel number 5 received 170 cells.
18. (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.
19. (geometry) A three-dimensional facet of a polytope.
20. (statistics) The unit in a statistical array (a spreadsheet, for example) where a row and a column intersect.
21. (architecture) The space between the ribs of a vaulted roof.
22. (architecture) A cella.
23. (entomology) An area of an insect wing bounded by veins.

verb

1. (transitive) To place or enclose in a cell.
   Myself a recluse from the world, And celled under ground, Lest that the gould, the precious stones, And pleasures, here be found 1586, William Warner, Albion's England

Etymology 2

From cell phone, from cellular phone, from cellular + telephone.

noun

1. (US, informal) A cellular phone.