ciliate

American  

[sil-ee-it, -eyt] / ˈsɪl i ɪt, -ˌeɪt /

noun

1. Also called ciliophoran.  any protozoan of the phylum Ciliophora (or in some classification schemes, class Ciliata), as those of the genera Paramecium, Tetrahymena, Stentor, and Vorticella, having cilia on part or all of the surface.

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adjective

1. Also ciliated having cilia.

2. belonging or pertaining to the phylum Ciliophora.

ciliate British  

/ ˈsɪlɪɪt, -eɪt /

adjective

1. Also: ciliated.  possessing or relating to cilia

   a ciliate epithelium

2. of or relating to protozoans of the phylum Ciliophora , which have an outer layer of cilia

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noun

1. a protozoan of the phylum Ciliophora

Other Word Forms

• ciliately adverb
• ciliation noun
• multiciliate adjective
• multiciliated adjective
• nonciliate adjective
• nonciliated adjective
• unciliated adjective

Etymology

Origin of ciliate

1785–95; < New Latin ciliātus, equivalent to cili ( a ) cilia + -ātus -ate ¹

Example Sentences

Instead of studying cells in a lab dish, the scientists used advanced computer modeling to analyze how molecular networks inside ciliate and mammalian cells respond to different patterns of stimulation.

From Science Daily • Nov. 19, 2024

The probable culprit is a disease-causing ciliate parasite that brings with it a fast death - perhaps the same one that has wreaked havoc on sea urchin populations in the Caribbean.

From Reuters • May 24, 2023

One ciliate can consume up to 1 million virus particles a day, he and his colleagues wrote in PNAS.

From Science Magazine • Jan. 11, 2023

For now, here’s a cute scuticociliate, a scuttle-y little ciliate that can jump fairly impressive distances.

From Scientific American • Oct. 17, 2013

Branched, creeping or ascending; leaves subimbricate, obliquely spreading, round-obovate, entire or denticulate, the dorsal margin reflexed; perianth much exceeding the involucral leaves, oblong, dilated at the truncate or ciliate apex.—In rocky rivulets; common.

From The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee by Gray, Asa