unicellular
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
- unicellularity noun
Etymology
Origin of unicellular
Explanation
In biology, the adjective unicellular describes an organism that has only one single cell, like most kinds of bacteria. You're most likely to see the word unicellular in a biology textbook, where it is used to talk about microscopic, single-celled organisms. Many types of fungi are unicellular, as well as amoebas, bacteria, and other tiny creatures and plants. The word unicellular combines the Latin prefix meaning "one," uni, and the word cellular, which has the root word cella, "small room."
Vocabulary lists containing unicellular
Cell Biology - Middle School
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"Joyas Voladoras" by Brian Doyle
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Cell Biology - High 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.
Yeast are unicellular fungi that ferment sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide.
From Salon • Sep. 4, 2024
For example, the researchers found evidence of "heterospecific killing," where a cell engulfs and kills a cell of a different species, across a wide range of unicellular, facultatively multicellular, and obligate multicellular organisms.
From Science Daily • May 21, 2024
They are also astonishingly canny for unicellular organisms, with the ability to rapidly develop new defenses against antibiotics and then pass them along to other bacteria through genetic material.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 3, 2024
The vast unicellular world gets a single green blob labeled “microbe.”
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 12, 2023
All research shows that unicellular fungi, algæ, infusoria, and so forth, in dividing, transmit specific characters so strongly and in detail so minute that their descendants, a million generations off, resemble them in every respect.
From The Biological Problem of To-day Preformation Or Epigenesis? The Basis of a Theory of Organic Development by Hertwig, Oscar
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.
