cilium

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin cilium (“eyelid”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɪl.i.əm/
• Rhymes: -ɪliəm

Noun

cilium (plural cilia)

1. (cytology) 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.

   Hyponym: primary cilium

   • 1892, Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Claus, edited by F. G. Heathcote, Elementary Text-book of Zoology:

     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.

   • 2006, Manfred Schliwa, Molecular Motors, page 359:

     The clockwise beating of cilia results in a net flow of extraembryonic fluid leftwards […]

2. (entomology) One of the fine hairs along an insect's wing.
3. (botany) Hairs or similar protrusions along the margin of an organ.
4. (anatomy) An eyelash.

See also

• flagellum

References

• “cilium”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “cilium”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.