Dictionary

cilium en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio
• /ˈsɪl.i.əm/

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱel- Proto-Indo-European *-yom Proto-Indo-European *ḱelyom Proto-Italic *keljom Latin ciliumbor. English cilium Borrowed from Latin cilium (“eyelid”).

Meanings

1. A short microscopic hairlike organelle projecting from a eukaryotic cell (such as a unicellular organism or one cell of a multicelled organism) which serve either for propulsion by causing currents in the surrounding fluid or as sensors.
   • The clockwise beating of cilia results in a net flow of extraembryonic fluid leftwards […] 2006, Manfred Schliwa, Molecular Motors, page 359:
   • It is the deeper parts of such cells which give rise to delicate muscular fibres or networks of fibres, while the superficially placed body of the cell myoblast), the part which produces the above, performs other functions, and usually bears a cilium. 1892, Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Claus, edited by F. G. Heathcote, Elementary Text-book of Zoology:
2. One of the fine hairs along an insect's wing.
3. One of the hairs or similar protrusions along the margin of an organ.
4. An eyelash.

Forms

Deriveds

monocilium · ciliary · ciliate · stereocilium · monociliate · uniciliate · kinocilium · cilio- · pseudocilium · macrocilium · Ciliate

Hyponyms

ciliolum

Relateds

flagellum · supercilium

Translations (22)

mi hururiki (hairlike organelle projecting from eukaryotic cell) · it ciglio (hairlike organelle projecting from eukaryotic cell) · sv cilie (hairlike organelle projecting from eukaryotic cell) · zh 纖毛 /纤毛 (hairlike organelle projecting from eukaryotic cell) · fr cil (hairlike organelle projecting from eukaryotic cell) · pt cílio (hairlike organelle projecting from eukaryotic cell) · cs řasinka (hairlike organelle projecting from eukaryotic cell) · ne पक्ष्म (hairlike organelle projecting from eukaryotic cell) · ru ресни́чка (hairlike organelle projecting from eukaryotic cell) · ckb برژۆڵە (hairlike organelle projecting from eukaryotic cell) · cs brva (hairlike organelle projecting from eukaryotic cell) · bg ресница (hair along the margin of an organ) · kmr kûlk (hairlike organelle projecting from eukaryotic cell) · fi ripsi (hair along the margin of an organ) · pl rzęska (hairlike organelle projecting from eukaryotic cell) · ca cili (hairlike organelle projecting from eukaryotic cell) · es cilio (hairlike organelle projecting from eukaryotic cell) · bg ресна (hairlike organelle projecting from eukaryotic cell) · fi värekarva (hairlike organelle projecting from eukaryotic cell) · zh 纤毛 (hairlike organelle projecting from eukaryotic cell) · el βλεφαρίδα (hairlike organelle projecting from eukaryotic cell) · pl rzęska (hair along the margin of an organ)