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.
The resulting tissue contained multiple cell types found in the human airway, including mucus producing cells and cells with cilia.
From Science Daily • Jan. 22, 2026
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
In other words, they substantially erase the preprogrammed magnetization that was shared by all of the microparticles when the cilia were fabricated.
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.
