cilia
Americanplural noun
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cilium
singular
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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.
See Examples For:
In the lungs, their cilia sway back and forth to keep fluids like mucus from collecting.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 6, 2024
To make the cilia, the researchers introduce the magnetic microparticles into a polymer dissolved in a liquid.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 24, 2024
For this work, the researchers created magnetic cilia consisting of a polymer embedded with magnetic microparticles.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 24, 2024
Magnetic cilia -- artificial hairs whose movement is powered by embedded magnetic particles -- have been around for a while, and are of interest for applications in soft robotics, transporting objects and mixing liquids.
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
Scientists have long known that abnormalities in a structure on kidney cells, or the primary cilium, cause cysts to form in kidneys.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 8, 2024
Depending on its position, a cilium can be more effected by its neighbor than vice versa, especially in a dense carpet of cilia as it frequently occurs in nature.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 29, 2023
One tiny flick of a microscopic cellular hair, known as a cilium, can’t do much on its own.
From Scientific American ● Jul. 11, 2022
The current model is that cilia are attached to one another by “tip links,” structures which link the tips of one cilium to another.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2015
Behind this, from the concave side of the incurvation, proceeded another long cilium, so delicate as to be discernible only by the use of the highest powers and careful management of the light.
From Discourses Biological and Geological Essays by Thomas Henry Huxley
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.
