Cellularizing

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Describing the process of forming or dividing into cells; relating to breaking down a structure into smaller cellular units; pertaining to organizing or segmenting something at the microscopic cellular level
2. Referring to the action of creating cellular units from a larger entity; involving the partitioning of a material or tissue into cells; connected with the development of individual cell-like compartments
3. Indicating the conversion of a mass into distinct cells; concerning the segmentation of a biological or synthetic structure into cellular forms; associated with the generation of cellular divisions or compartments

Etymology: "Cellularizing" is the present participle of "cellularize", which is built from "cellular" plus the suffix "-ize". "Cellular" comes from the Latin "cellula", a diminutive of "cella", meaning a small room or storeroom, and the image behind it is the chamber: a space walled off from its surroundings. Biologists later borrowed that sense of a small enclosed compartment when they described living tissue as made of cells, so the word that began as a storeroom ended up naming the basic unit of life. The suffix "-ize" comes from Greek "-izein", which turns a noun or adjective into a verb meaning to make or to cause to become something. So "cellularize" literally means to make into cells, or to convert something into a cellular form. The participle "cellularizing" carries that process forward, describing a mass that is in the act of dividing into distinct compartments.