multicellular
Americanadjective
Etymology
Origin of multicellular
Explanation
Something that's multicellular is a complex organism, made up of many cells. Humans are multicellular. While single-celled organisms can't usually be seen without a microscope, you can see most multicelluar organisms with the naked eye. Plants and animals are multicellular — although they all, including humans, start as a single cell that reproduces into many. Multi means "many," and the Latin root of cellular is cellularis, "of little cells," from cella, "small room."
Vocabulary lists containing multicellular
Cell Biology - Middle School
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Cell Biology - High School
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Plants (Botany) - Middle School
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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.
Their fossils provide the earliest direct record of multicellular animal life.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 6, 2026
Anisogamy is one of the most fundamental facts of life: Sexual reproduction is anisogamous in all animals and almost all multicellular plants.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
According to the researchers, this indicates that the first blood cells likely emerged around the same time multicellular animals first appeared on Earth.
From Science Daily ● May 27, 2026
Though Jablonski is more bullish on the survival prospects of unicellular life, there is some comfort for the multicellular among us too.
From Salon ● Feb. 25, 2025
All across Yazd, people faced the qibla to pray, a titanic multicellular entity focused on the same moment in space-time.
From "Darius the Great Is Not Okay" by Adib Khorram
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.
