cilia
Americanplural noun
singular
cilium-
Biology. minute hairlike organelles, identical in structure to flagella, that line the surfaces of certain cells and beat in rhythmic waves, providing locomotion to ciliate protozoans and moving liquids along internal epithelial tissue in animals.
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Anatomy. the eyelashes.
noun
Etymology
Origin of cilia
1705–15; New Latin, plural of cilium eyelash, Latin: upper eyelid, perhaps a back formation from supercilium eyebrow; supercilium
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
And hundreds of centrioles, intended for eventual construction of cilia at the cell surface, got stuck in the cell body.
From Science Daily • Jun. 6, 2024
They captured them at different stages of maturity, hoping to glimpse the genetic instructions it takes to grow cilia and found a pattern that looked like the cell cycle.
From Science Daily • Jun. 6, 2024
Most magnetic cilia make use of 'soft' magnets, which do not generate a magnetic field but become magnetic in the presence of a magnetic field.
From Science Daily • Apr. 24, 2024
Researchers have now demonstrated a technique for creating magnetic cilia that can be "reprogrammed," changing their magnetic properties at room temperature to change the motion of the cilia as needed.
From Science Daily • Apr. 24, 2024
His cilia are not cilia at all, but individual spirochetes, and at the base of attachment of each spirochete is an oval organelle, embedded in the myxotricha membrane, which is a bacterium.
From "The Lives of a Cell" by Lewis Thomas
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
