multicellular

[ muhl-tee-sel-yuh-ler, muhl-tahy- ]

adjective

1. composed of several or many cells.

multicellular

/ mŭl′tē-sĕl′yə-lər /

1. Having or consisting of many cells.
2. Compare unicellular

Word History and Origins

Origin of multicellular¹

First recorded in 1855–60; multi- + cellular

Example Sentences

Placozoans, the microscopic multicellular creatures that seem to be among the simplest in the animal kingdom, move and react to their surroundings.

From Quanta Magazine

So according to this model, not all viruses come from deep time—that is, early in the immense arc of the earth’s history, before any multicellular life existed.

From Nautilus

In fact, it’s something that we have in common with every multicellular organism on Earth — and a bunch of the single-celled ones, too.

From Science News For Students

Jablonka guesses that the behaviors on display in the xenobots are probably “something like the most basic self-organization of a multicellular animal-cell aggregate.”

From Quanta Magazine

She suspects the findings might illuminate the very origins of multicellular life.

From Quanta Magazine

The multicellular organism was a colony of unicellular organisms, and its life was a sum of the lives of its constituent elements.

From Project Gutenberg

Weismann deduces from this a radical distinction between the unicellular and the multicellular organisms.

From Project Gutenberg

We may also regard these articulated multicellular threads as the first sketch for the formation of tissues in the metaphyta.

From Project Gutenberg

The third and highest stage of individuality to which the multicellular organism attains is the stock or colony (cormus).

From Project Gutenberg

In the same way the real multicellular fungi (ascomycetes and basimycetes) may be traced to the tissue-forming alg.

From Project Gutenberg