parent cell

[ pârənt ]


  1. A cell that is the source of other cells, as a cell that divides to produce two or more daughter cells, or a stem cell that is a progenitor of other cells or is the first in a line of developing cells. Also called mother cell

Words Nearby parent cell

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

How to use parent cell in a sentence

  • A single cell divides by splitting into two others, each of which resembles the parent cell, except that they are of less bulk.

    A Civic Biology | George William Hunter
  • The original cell may thus form in succession many hundreds of cells in every respect like the original parent cell.

    A Civic Biology | George William Hunter
  • Nor can the parent cell be called mother or father: and for that matter, the parent cell cannot be determined.

  • That a parent cell was requisite for the production of new cells seemed to many investigators to be no longer needed.

  • For at last they become an Acinetan or a Gregarine, exactly like the parent-cell from which they arose as embryos.