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unit cell

American

noun

Crystallography.

the simplest unit of a regular lattice.

unit cell British

noun

crystallog the smallest group of atoms, ions, or molecules that is characteristic of a particular crystal lattice

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of unit cell

First recorded in 1935–40

Example Sentences

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See Examples For:

unit cell

In twisted antiferromagnetic layers, magnetic spin patterns are not limited to the small repeating moiré unit cell.

From Science Daily ● Mar. 2, 2026

Ice XXI shows an unusually large and intricate unit cell compared to other known phases.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 16, 2025

Last week, a 34-year-old man was found unconscious in a medical unit cell at the jail, where he had been held since 2019.

From BBC ● Aug. 15, 2023

Atoms at adjacent corners of this unit cell contact each other, so the edge length of this cell is equal to two atomic radii, or one atomic diameter.

From Textbooks ● Feb. 14, 2019

In a simple cubic lattice, the unit cell that repeats in all directions is a cube defined by the centers of eight atoms, as shown in Figure 10.49.

From Textbooks ● Feb. 14, 2019

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023