different between shell vs cell

English

Etymology

From Middle English schelle, from Old English s?iell, from Proto-West Germanic *skallju, from Proto-Germanic *skalj?, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelH- (“to split, cleave”).

Compare West Frisian skyl (“peel, rind”), Dutch schil (“peel, skin, rink”), Low German Schell (“shell, scale”), Irish scelec (“pebble”), Latin silex (“pebble, flint”), siliqua (“pod”), Old Church Slavonic ??????? (skolika, “shell”). More at shale.Doublet of sheal.

• (computing): From being viewed as an outer layer of interface between the user and the operating-system internals.

Pronunciation

• enPR: sh?l, IPA^(key): /??l/
• Rhymes: -?l

Noun

shell (plural shells)

1. A hard external covering of an animal.
   1. The calcareous or chitinous external covering of mollusks, crustaceans, and some other invertebrates.

   2. (by extension) Any mollusk having such a covering.
   3. (entomology) The exoskeleton or wing covers of certain insects.
   4. The conjoined scutes that constitute the "shell" (carapace) of a tortoise or turtle.
   5. The overlapping hard plates comprising the armor covering the armadillo's body.
2. The hard calcareous covering of a bird egg.
3. One of the outer layers of skin of an onion.

4. (botany) The hard external covering of various plant seed forms.
   1. The covering, or outside part, of a nut.

   2. A pod containing the seeds of certain plants, such as the legume Phaseolus vulgaris.
   3. (in the plural) Husks of cacao seeds, a decoction of which is sometimes used as a substitute or adulterant for cocoa and its products such as chocolate.
5. (geology) The accreted mineral formed around a hollow geode.
6. (weaponry) The casing of a self-contained single-unit artillery projectile.
7. (weaponry) A hollow, usually spherical or cylindrical projectile fired from a siege mortar or a smoothbore cannon. It contains an explosive substance designed to be ignited by a fuse or by percussion at the target site so that it will burst and scatter at high velocity its contents and fragments. Formerly called a bomb.
8. (weaponry) The cartridge of a breechloading firearm; a load; a bullet; a round.
9. (architecture) Any slight hollow structure; a framework, or exterior structure, regarded as not complete or filled in, as the shell of a house.
10. A garment, usually worn by women, such as a shirt, blouse, or top, with short sleeves or no sleeves, that often fastens in the rear.
11. A coarse or flimsy coffin; a thin interior coffin enclosed within a more substantial one.

    (Can we find and add a quotation of Knight to this entry?)

12. (music) A string instrument, as a lyre, whose acoustical chamber is formed like a shell.
    • 1687, John Dryden, A Song for Cecilia's Day

13. (music) The body of a drum; the often wooden, often cylindrical acoustic chamber, with or without rims added for tuning and for attaching the drum head.
14. An engraved copper roller used in print works.
15. The thin coating of copper on an electrotype.
16. (nautical) The watertight outer covering of the hull of a vessel, often made with planking or metal plating.
17. (nautical, rigging) The outer frame or case of a block within which the sheaves revolve.
18. (nautical) A light boat whose frame is covered with thin wood, impermeable fabric, or water-proofed paper; a racing shell or dragon boat.
19. (chemistry) A set of atomic orbitals that have the same principal quantum number.
20. (figuratively) The outward form independent of what is inside.
21. (figuratively) The empty outward form of someone or something.

22. An emaciated person.

23. A psychological barrier to social interaction.

24. (computing) An operating system software user interface, whose primary purpose is to launch other programs and control their interactions; the user's command interpreter. Shell is a way to separate the internal complexity of the implementation of the command from the user. The internals can change while the user experience/interface remains the same.

25. (business) A legal entity that has no operations.

26. A concave rough cast-iron tool in which a convex lens is ground to shape.
27. (engineering) A gouge bit or shell bit.
28. (phonology) The onset and coda of a syllable.
29. (Britain, slang) A person's ear.

    Synonym: shell-like

    Can I have a quick word in your shell?

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

shell (third-person singular simple present shells, present participle shelling, simple past and past participle shelled)

1. To remove the outer covering or shell of something.
2. To bombard, to fire projectiles at, especially with artillery.
3. (informal) To disburse or give up money, to pay. (Often used with out).
4. (intransitive) To fall off, as a shell, crust, etc.
5. (intransitive) To cast the shell, or exterior covering; to fall out of the pod or husk.

   Nuts shell in falling.

   Wheat or rye shells in reaping.

6. (computing, intransitive) To switch to a shell or command line.
   • 1993, Robin Nixon, The PC Companion (page 115)

     Automenu is a good program to try, and offers a fair amount of protection - but, unfortunately, it's one of those systems that allow users to shell to DOS.

7. To form shallow, irregular cracks (in a coating).
8. (topology) To form a shelling.

Derived terms

• sheller
• shell out

Translations

Further reading

• shell in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• shell in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• shell on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons

Anagrams

• hells

Yola

Etymology

From Middle English schal, from Old English s?eal.

Verb

shell

1. shall

References

• Jacob Poole (1867) , William Barnes, editor, A glossary, with some pieces of verse, of the old dialect of the English colony in the baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, J. Russell Smith, ?ISBN

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /s?l/
• Homophones: cel, sell

Etymology 1

From Middle English celle, selle, from Old English cell (attested in inflected forms), from Latin cella (“chamber, small room, compartment”), later reinforced by Old French cel, sele, Old French cele. Doublet of cella; ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *?elneh?, from Proto-Indo-European *?el- (“to cover”).

Noun

cell (plural cells)

1. A single-room dwelling for a hermit. [from 10th c.]
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, VI.6:

     So, taking them apart into his cell, / He to that point fit speaches gan to frame […].

   • 1764, Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto, IV:

     For three days he and his attendants had wandered in the forest without seeing a human form: but on the evening of the third they came to a cell, in which they found a venerable hermit in the agonies of death.

2. (now historical) A small monastery or nunnery dependent on a larger religious establishment. [from 11th c.]
3. A small room in a monastery or nunnery accommodating one person. [from 14th c.]

4. A room in a prison or jail for one or more inmates. [from 18th c.]

   Synonym: prison cell

5. Each of the small hexagonal compartments in a honeycomb. [from 14th c.]
6. (biology, now chiefly botany) Any of various chambers in a tissue or organism having specific functions. [from 14th c.]
   • 1858, Asa Gray, Introduction to Structural and Systematic Botany, fifth edition, p. 282:

     Each of the two cells or lobes of the anther is marked with a lateral line or furrow, running from top to bottom […].

7. (entomology) The discal cell of the wing of a lepidopteran insect.
8. (obsolete) Specifically, any of the supposed compartments of the brain, formerly thought to be the source of specific mental capacities, knowledge, or memories. [14th-19th c.]
9. A section or compartment of a larger structure. [from 16th c.]
10. (obsolete, chiefly literary) Any small dwelling; a remote nook, a den. [16th-19th c.]
    • 1810, Walter Scott, Lady of the Lake, II:

      Not long shall honour'd Douglas dwell, / Like hunted stag, in mountain-cell […].

11. A device which stores electrical power; used either singly or together in batteries; the basic unit of a battery. [from 19th c.]

12. (biology) The basic unit of a living organism, consisting of a quantity of protoplasm surrounded by a cell membrane, which is able to synthesize proteins and replicate itself. [from 19th c.]
    • 1999, Paul Brown & Dave King, The Guardian, 15 Feb 1999:

      An American company has applied to experiment in Britain on Parkinson's disease sufferers by injecting their brains with cells from pigs.

    • 2011, Terence Allen & Graham Cowling, The Cell: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford 2011, p. 3:

      In multicellular organisms, groups of cells form tissues and tissues come together to form organs.

13. (meteorology) A small thunderstorm, caused by convection, that forms ahead of a storm front. [from 20th c.]

14. (computing) The minimal unit of a cellular automaton that can change state and has an associated behavior. [from 20th c.]

15. (card games) In FreeCell-type games, a space where one card can be placed.
16. A small group of people forming part of a larger organization, often an outlawed one. [from 20th c.]

17. (communication) A short, fixed-length packet as in asynchronous transfer mode. [from 20th c.]

18. (communication) A region of radio reception that is a part of a larger radio network.

19. (geometry) A three-dimensional facet of a polytope.
20. (statistics) The unit in a statistical array (a spreadsheet, for example) where a row and a column intersect.
21. (architecture) The space between the ribs of a vaulted roof.
22. (architecture) A cella.
23. (entomology) An area of an insect wing bounded by veins

Usage notes

In the sense of an electrical device, "cell" is the technically correct name for a single unit of battery-type power storage, whereas a battery is a device comprising multiple of them, though it is often used for simple cells.

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:cell.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:cell

Derived terms

Related terms

• cellar
• cellular
• cellule

Translations

Verb

cell (third-person singular simple present cells, present participle celling, simple past and past participle celled)

1. (transitive) To place or enclose in a cell.

Etymology 2

From cell phone, from cellular phone, from cellular + telephone

Noun

cell (plural cells)

1. (US, informal) A cellular phone.

Usage notes

• Widely used attributively.

Translations

Further reading

• cell in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• cell in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• cell at OneLook Dictionary Search
• Cell in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

Dutch

Etymology

Clipping of cellulair or borrowed directly from English cell.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /s?l/
• Hyphenation: cell

Noun

cell m (plural cells, diminutive celltje n)

1. (Suriname, colloquial) cellular phone, mobile phone.

   Synonyms: (Belgium) gsm, (Netherlands) mobiel

Derived terms

French

Etymology

Clipping of cellulaire.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /s?l/

Noun

cell m (plural cells)

1. (Quebec, colloquial) cellular phone, mobile phone; Abbreviation of téléphone cellulaire..

Synonyms

• portable, téléphone portable, téléphone cellulaire, cellulaire, téléphone mobile, mobile

Old Irish

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin cella.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k?el?/

Noun

cell f

1. church

Inflection

Descendants

• Irish: cill
• Manx: keeill
• Scottish Gaelic: cill

Mutation

References

• Gregory Toner, Maire Ní Mhaonaigh, Sharon Arbuthnot, Dagmar Wodtko, Maire-Luise Theuerkauf, editors (2019) , “cell”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language

Swedish

Pronunciation

Noun

cell c

1. cell; a room in a prison.
2. Cell; a room in a monastery for sleeping one person.
3. Cell; a small group of people forming part of a larger organization.
4. (biology) Cell; the basic unit of a living organism.
5. (biology) Cell; a cavity in a structure such as a honeycomb.
6. (computing) Cell; a minimal unit of a cellular automaton.

Declension

Welsh

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin cella.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k??/

Noun

cell f (plural celloedd)

1. cell
2. Often used as the second part of a compound word denoting a place, i.e. llyfrgell (library), literally "llyfr" (book) + "cell".

Mutation