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; see 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.
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 the lungs, their cilia sway back and forth to keep fluids like mucus from collecting.
From Science Daily • Jun. 6, 2024
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
"We can change the direction of the material's magnetization at room temperature, which in turn allows us to completely change how the cilia flex. It's like getting a swimmer to change their stroke."
From Science Daily • Apr. 24, 2024
Spirochetes, like the ones attached to M. paradoxa, joined up and became the cilia of eukaryotic cells.
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.
