Extracellularly

Part of speech: adverb

Definitions

1. Occurring outside of cells in an organism's body or environment
2. describing processes or substances that function in the spaces between cells
3. relating to the area that surrounds cells, typically involved in biological functions

Etymology: "Extracellularly" is a plain formation: the adjective "extracellular" with the adverbial ending "-ly" added to it. The adjective itself is built from the Latin preposition "extra", meaning "outside" or "beyond", and the English word "cellular", which comes from the noun "cell" (from Latin "cella", a small room or storeroom). Put together, the sense is "outside the cells", which is exactly what the word describes: processes that happen in the spaces between cells. The ending does most of the grammatical work. "-ly" descends from an Old English suffix, "-līce", which turned adjectives into adverbs of manner, so "extracellularly" tells you how something occurs: in an extracellular way. The suffix traces back to a Germanic root meaning "body" or "form", which is why the same ending appears in so many English adverbs such as "quickly" and "slowly".