Celled

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Having or composed of one or more separate compartments or cells such as in biological or structural contexts
2. Describes an object or organism that contains distinct enclosed units or chambers
3. Characterized by division into multiple cells or sections, often to perform specific functions

Etymology: The adjective "celled" is about as plain as English word-building gets: it is "cell" with the suffix "-ed" attached, meaning "having cells." The noun "cell" is the older and more interesting half of the story. It arrived in English from Old French "cele," which itself descended from Latin "cella," a word for a small room or storeroom, and the Latin word goes back to an ancient root that also gave English "hall" and "hell." Over the centuries the meaning of "cell" travelled a long way from a monk's or prisoner's room. In the seventeenth century it was applied to the tiny hollow compartments that Robert Hooke saw in thin slices of cork under his microscope, and biologists later borrowed the word for the basic unit of living tissue. "Celled" follows that scientific sense, describing anything divided into enclosed chambers, from a honeycomb to a sponge.

Synonyms: cellular, compartmentalized, partitioned, divided, segmented