cilia
Americanplural noun
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Biology. minute hairlike organelles, identical in structure to flagella, that line the surfaces of certain cells and beat in rhythmic waves, providing locomotion to ciliate protozoans and moving liquids along internal epithelial tissue in animals.
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Anatomy. the eyelashes.
noun
Etymology
Origin of cilia
1705–15; New Latin, plural of cilium eyelash, Latin: upper eyelid, perhaps a back formation from supercilium eyebrow; see supercilium
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.
See Examples For:
By combining high speed imaging with three dimensional reconstructions of more than 1,000 cells, the researchers showed how networks of fused neurons coordinate the beating of cilia on different parts of the animal's body.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 6, 2026
Previous studies had found that a few cell cycle proteins, called cyclins, were active during cilia growth, as well as centrioles, which anchor the two sets of chromosomes during cell division.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 6, 2024
Researchers have now demonstrated a technique for creating magnetic cilia that can be "reprogrammed," changing their magnetic properties at room temperature to change the motion of the cilia as needed.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 24, 2024
"We can change the direction of the material's magnetization at room temperature, which in turn allows us to completely change how the cilia flex. It's like getting a swimmer to change their stroke."
From Science Daily ● Apr. 24, 2024
His cilia are not cilia at all, but individual spirochetes, and at the base of attachment of each spirochete is an oval organelle, embedded in the myxotricha membrane, which is a bacterium.
From "The Lives of a Cell" by Lewis Thomas
Scientists have long known that abnormalities in a structure on kidney cells, or the primary cilium, cause cysts to form in kidneys.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 8, 2024
Depending on its position, a cilium can be more effected by its neighbor than vice versa, especially in a dense carpet of cilia as it frequently occurs in nature.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 29, 2023
He points out that Dogic's group created something that looks and acts very much like a cilium or flagellum with its multitude of proteins — but that may, in fact, work very differently.
From Nature ● Jan. 4, 2016
The current model is that cilia are attached to one another by “tip links,” structures which link the tips of one cilium to another.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2015
The bristle is extremely delicate, scarcely thicker than a cilium, and easily overlooked, yet with proper focussing of the condenser I found it on every specimen examined.
From Marine Protozoa from Woods Hole Bulletin of the United States Fish Commission 21:415-468, 1901 by Calkins, Gary N. (Gary Nathan)
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.
