cella

See also: Cella and cel·la

English

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin cella. Doublet of cell and hall.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈsɛlə/
• Rhymes: -ɛlə

Noun

cella (plural cellae)

1. (architecture) The central, enclosed part of an ancient temple, as distinguished from the open porticos. [from 17th c.]
   • 1990, Camille Paglia, Sexual Personae:

     Room by room, Sarrasine advances to the cella of the hermaphrodite god, veiled like Spenser's Venus.

Anagrams

• eCall

Aragonese

Etymology

Inherited from Latin cilia, plural of cilium.From a shortened form of Latin supercilium. The root of which comes from Proto-Indo-European *ḱel-.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈθeʎa/
• IPA^(key): /ˈseʎa/ (Benasquese)
• Rhymes: -eʎa
• Syllabification: ce‧lla

Noun

cella f (plural cellas)

1. eyebrow

Catalan

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *ḱel-

Proto-Indo-European *-yom

Proto-Indo-European *ḱelyom

Proto-Italic *keljom

Latin cilium

Latin cilia

Catalan cella

Inherited from Latin cilia, plural of cilium.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Northern) [ˈse̞.ʎə]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [ˈsə.ʎə]
• IPA^(key): (Central) [ˈsɛ.ʎə]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia, Northwestern) [ˈse.ʎa]

• Audio (Catalonia):

  (file)

Noun

cella f (plural celles)

1. eyebrow

Derived terms

• cellut
• entrecella
• sobrecella

Further reading

• “cella”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “cella”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2026
• “cella” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• Alcover, Antoni Maria; Moll, Francesc de Borja (1963), “cella”, in Diccionari català-valencià-balear (in Catalan)

French

Noun

cella f (plural cellas)

1. cella

Further reading

• “cella”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Galician

Alternative forms

• celha (reintegrationist)

Etymology

From Old Galician-Portuguese [Term?] (compare Portuguese celha), from Latin cilia (compare Spanish ceja), from cilium.

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /ˈθeɟa/ [ˈθe.ɟɐ]

• IPA^(key): (standard) /ˈθeɟa/ [ˈθe.ɟɐ]
• IPA^(key): (seseo) /ˈseɟa/ [ˈse.ɟɐ]

• Rhymes: -eɟa

Noun

cella f (plural cellas)

1. eyelash

   Synonym: pestana

2. eyebrow

   Synonym: sobrecella

References

• “cella”, in Dicionario da Real Academia Galega (in Galician), A Coruña: Royal Galician Academy, 2012–2026
• “cella”, in Dicionário Estraviz de galego (in Galician), 2014–2026
• Antón Santamarina, editor (2006–2013), “cella”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega [Dictionary of Dictionaries of the Galician language] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Santamarina, Ernesto X. González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “cella”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “cella”, in Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega, →ISSN

Hungarian

Etymology

From Latin cella (“chamber, small room”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈt͡sɛlːɒ]
• Hyphenation: cel‧la
• Rhymes: -lɒ

Noun

cella (plural cellák)

1. cell (room in a prison or jail for one or more inmates)

   Hyponym: börtöncella

2. cell (small room in a monastery or nunnery accommodating one person)
3. (architecture) cella (central, enclosed part of an ancient temple)
4. (biology, archaic) cell (basic unit of a living organism)

   Synonym: sejt

5. cell (each of the small hexagonal compartments in a honeycomb)
6. (electricity) cell (basic unit of a battery)
7. (communication) cell (region of radio reception that is a part of a larger radio network)
8. (statistics) cell (unit in a statistical array where a row and a column intersect)

   Synonym: mező

Declension

Inflection (stem in long/high vowel, back harmony)

	singular	plural
nominative	cella	cellák
accusative	cellát	cellákat
dative	cellának	celláknak
instrumental	cellával	cellákkal
causal-final	celláért	cellákért
translative	cellává	cellákká
terminative	celláig	cellákig
essive-formal	cellaként	cellákként
essive-modal	—	—
inessive	cellában	cellákban
superessive	cellán	cellákon
adessive	cellánál	celláknál
illative	cellába	cellákba
sublative	cellára	cellákra
allative	cellához	cellákhoz
elative	cellából	cellákból
delative	celláról	cellákról
ablative	cellától	celláktól
non-attributive possessive – singular	celláé	celláké
non-attributive possessive – plural	celláéi	cellákéi

Possessive forms of cella

possessor	single possession	multiple possessions
1st person sing.	cellám	celláim
2nd person sing.	cellád	celláid
3rd person sing.	cellája	cellái
1st person plural	cellánk	celláink
2nd person plural	cellátok	celláitok
3rd person plural	cellájuk	celláik

Derived terms

• cellájú
• cellás
• fotocella
• szupercella

Compound words

• akkumulátorcella
• börtöncella
• cellaajtó
• cellafal
• cellaméret
• cellapotenciál
• cellarendszer
• cellatárs
• memóriacella
• táblázatcella
• üzemanyagcella
• zivatarcella

Further reading

• cella in Géza Bárczi, László Országh, et al., editors, A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára [The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language] (ÉrtSz.), Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN.
• cella in Nóra Ittzés, editor, A magyar nyelv nagyszótára [A Comprehensive Dictionary of the Hungarian Language] (Nszt.), Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 2006–2031 (work in progress; published a–ez as of 2026).

Italian

Etymology

From Latin cella, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱelnā.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃɛl.la/
• Rhymes: -ɛlla
• Hyphenation: cèl‧la

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

cella f (plural celle)

1. cell

Derived terms

• cella solare
• fotocella
• semicella

Related terms

• cellaio
• cellario
• celliere
• cellula

Anagrams

• calle

Latin

Etymology

Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱel- (“to cover”), although the specific formation is uncertain.

De Vaan posits as possible Proto-Italic forms *kēli- and *kēlā-. He suggests that the latter may have yielded cella by the Latin littera rule, whereby a long vowel followed by a single consonant was replaced by a short vowel followed by a geminate consonant. He also considers a diminutive formation *kēl-elā- > *kellā-, or, if formed directly from *ḱel-, *kel-ilā; other possible preforms are *kel-nā-, *kel-sā-, and *kel-dā-.

Cognates within Latin include clam, color, cēlō; within Italic, Faliscan 𐌂𐌄𐌋𐌀 (cela), Oscan kellaked (“he has stored”); outside Italic, Proto-Germanic *helaną (“to hide, conceal”), Sanskrit शाला (śā́lā, “large tent, building”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈkɛl.la]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈt͡ʃɛl.la]

Noun

cella f (genitive cellae); first declension

1. a small room, a hut, storeroom
2. a barn, granary
3. the part of a temple where the image of a god stood; altar, sanctuary, shrine, pantry

Declension

First-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	cella	cellae
genitive	cellae	cellārum
dative	cellae	cellīs
accusative	cellam	cellās
ablative	cellā	cellīs
vocative	cella	cellae

Derived terms

• cellārium
• cellārius
• cellula

Descendants

• Albanian: qelizë
• Aramaic:

  Classical Syriac: ܩܠܐ (qellā)

• Breton: kell
• Catalan: cel·la
• English: cell
• Greek: κελί (kelí)
• Ancient Greek: κέλλα (kélla)
• Irish: cill
• Italian: cella
• Old French: cele
• Old Galician-Portuguese: cela
  • Galician: cela
  • Portuguese: cela
• Russian: ке́лья (kélʹja)
• Serbo-Croatian: ćelija
• Spanish: cela, celda, cilla
• Swedish: cell
• Welsh: cell

Borrowings

• → Basque: gela
• → Old High German: zella
  • Middle High German: zelle, celle
    • Central Franconian:
      • Hunsrik: Zell
      • Luxembourgish: Zell
    • German: Zelle, Celle (obsolete)
      • → Polish: cela

Further reading

• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin Eli Smith, editors (1895–1910), “cell”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “cella”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press

Further reading

• “cella”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “cella”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "cella", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “cella”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “cella”, in The Perseus Project (1999), Perseus Encyclopedia‎^[1]
• “cella”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “cella”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin

Norwegian Bokmål

Alternative forms

• cellen

Noun

cella m or f

1. definite feminine singular of celle

Norwegian Nynorsk

Noun

cella f

1. definite singular of celle