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.
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
More deep mutational scanning data from multicellular organisms will be needed to see whether the same patterns apply to animals, plants, and humans.
From Science Daily ● May 29, 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
By the beginning of the Cambrian explosion of multicellular organisms about 540 million years ago, the ancestors of today’s ecdysozoans were already alive and varied in form and behavior, suggesting they arose even earlier.
From Science Magazine ● Nov. 20, 2024
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.
