cell
[noun]
Synonyms:
- room, cavity, chamber, compartment, cubicle, dungeon, stall
- unit, caucus, core, coterie, group, nucleus

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English Thesaurus: prison, jail, gaol, penitentiary, correctional facility, ...

[TahlilGaran] English Synonym Dictionary ▲

cell S3 W2 /sel/ noun [countable]
[Date: 1100-1200; Language: Old French; Origin: celle, from Latin cella 'small room']

1. BODY the smallest part of a living thing that can exist independently
blood/brain/nerve cell
red blood cells
cancer cells
Embryos grow by cell division (=the splitting of cells).

2.
PRISON a small room in a prison or police station where prisoners are kept:
He spent a night in the cells at the local police station.
the walls of his prison cell

3. PHONE American English a cellular phone; a telephone that you can carry around with you, that works by using a network of radio stations to pass on signals Synonym : mobile British English:
Call me on my cell if you’re running late.

4. ELECTRIC a piece of equipment for producing electricity from chemicals, heat, or light:
a car powered by electric fuel cells

5. SECRET GROUP a small group of people who are working secretly as part of a larger political organization:
a terrorist cell

6. RELIGIOUS a small room in a monastery or convent where someone sleeps

7. INSECT/SMALL ANIMAL a small space that an insect or other small creature has made to live in or use:
the cells of a honeycomb

[TahlilGaran] Dictionary of Contemporary English ▲

cell
noun
I. smallest living part of an animal/a plant body
ADJ. dead, living | abnormal, normal | blood, brain, muscle, nerve, skin red and white blood cells
egg, sperm | cancer | animal, human, plant, etc.
VERB + CELL form
CELL + VERB divide Cells divide and form new cells.
CELL + NOUN proliferation
PHRASES the nucleus of a cell, the proliferation of cells the proliferation of cells in leukaemia

[TahlilGaran] Collocations Dictionary ▲

cell
II. small room
ADJ. monk's, nun's | police, prison | padded
PREP. in a/the ~

[TahlilGaran] Collocations Dictionary ▲

cell

a blood/nerve/brain/muscle etc cell
No new brain cells are produced after birth.
a human/animal/plant cell
the structure of plant cells
a red cell (=the most common type of blood cell)
The red cells carry the oxygen.
a white cell (=a type of blood cell that defends your body against disease)
In leukaemia there is an abnormal and excessive formation of white cells.
a living/dead cell
Every living cell has a nucleus.
normal/abnormal
The test enables doctors to detect abnormal cells.
a stem cell (=one that divides and repairs the body, and may be used in medical treatment)
Stem cells may make life-saving treatment possible.
a cancer cell
Already there are many treatments which destroy cancer cells.
a cell divides
White blood cells divide rapidly.
cell division
The embryo grows by cell division.
a cell count (=the number of cells in a particular amount of blood)
A healthy person' s red cell count is close to 1, 000.

[TahlilGaran] Collocations Dictionary ▲

prison a large building where people are kept as a punishment for a crime or while they are waiting to go to court for their trial:
He was sentenced to five years in prison.
Wandsworth Prison
jail a prison, or a similar smaller building where prisoners are kept for a short time:
This old building is the jail that Butch Cassidy escaped from in 1887.
He was taken to a cell in the Los Angeles County Jail.
58% of prisoners are in jail for non-violent crimes.
The strikers were harassed, beaten and put in jail for trespassing.
Grover got caught for not paying his taxes and was sent to jail.
gaol /dʒeɪl/ British English another way of spelling jail:
He spent the night in gaol.
penitentiary /ˌpenəˈtenʃəri, ˌpenɪˈtenʃəri/ American English a large prison for people who are guilty of serious crimes:
the Ohio State Penitentiary
The murderer served 10 years at the penitentiary in Stillwater.
the abandoned federal penitentiary on Alcatraz Island
correctional facility American English formal an official word for a prison:
1,000 prisoners rioted at the North County Correctional Facility.
detention centre British English, detention center American English a place where young people who have done something illegal are kept, because they are too young to go to prison. Also used about a place where people who have entered a country illegally are kept:
Kevin, who had been abandoned by his mother, had been in and out of detention centres all his life.
a juvenile detention center
Harmondsworth detention centre, near Heathrow airport
open prison British English a prison in which prisoners have more freedom than in an ordinary prison, usually because their crimes were less serious:
In some open prisons, prisoners are allowed to go home at weekends.
cell a small room in a prison or police station, where someone is kept as a punishment:
a prison cell
Conditions were poor, and there were several prisoners to one cell.
go to jail
They’re going to jail for a long time.
send somebody to jail
The judge sent Meyer to jail for six years.
put somebody in jail
The government would put him in jail if he stayed in the country.
throw somebody in jail (=put somebody in jail)
Drunks were thrown in jail for a few days.
spend time/three months/six years etc in jail
Griffiths spent three days in jail after pushing a policeman.
serve time/five years etc in jail (=spend time in jail)
He was finally released after serving 27 years in jail.
get out of jail
He got out of jail after five years for armed robbery.
release somebody from jail
More than 30 of those arrested were released from jail for lack of evidence.
escape from jail
The killer has escaped from jail.
the local jail
The suspects were taken to the local jail.
a town/city/county jail
He was held without bail for thirty days in the county jail.
a high-/top-/maximum-security jail
Some inmates at the high-security jail had been wrongfully imprisoned.
a jail sentence
He’s serving a 7-year jail sentence.
a jail term (=period of time in jail)
He served only half of his three-month jail term.
a jail cell
The suspect was found dead in his jail cell.

[TahlilGaran] English Thesaurus ▲