Word.ws English Dictionary

chela

/ˈkiːlə/US/ˈkilə/

chela noun: a pincer-like claw of a crustacean or arachnid.

Noun (1)

chela (plural chelae)

  1. A pincer-like claw of a crustacean or arachnid.
    • It happeneth often, I confess, that a lobster hath the chely or great claw of one side longer than the other […]1646, Thomas Browne, chapter III, in Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], London: […] T[homas] H[arper] for Edward Dod, […], →OCLC, 1st book, page 5
    • The tail is curved up over the body and the pedipalps held forwards with the tip of the movable finger of the chela in contact with the sand.1993, The Encyclopedia of Land Invertebrate Behaviour, page 232

Noun (2)

IPA/ˈt͡ʃeɪ.lə/

chela (plural chelas or chele)

  1. A pupil or disciple, especially in Hinduism.
    • Nay, I had a disciple with me. He that was my friend at the Temple of the Tirthankers gave me a chela for this journey.1901, Rudyard Kipling, Kim
    • In fact, Gilgamesh's instructions are still-valid directions from the guru to the chela.1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 184

chela meaning in Tamil and Urdu

chela in Tamil

இடுக்கி, கொடுக்கு

chela in Urdu

چنگل

Examples of chela in a sentence

  • The two brushes on each chela snap open into semicircular fans, forming fine-mesh baskets that passively filter water.2004, Raymond T. Bauer, Remarkable Shrimps: Adaptations and Natural History of the Carideans, page 26:
  • The relationship between a guru and his chela was as a father to a son, as a whole person to a whole person, individual and unique.1987, Phirozshah Dorabji Mehta, The Heart of Religion, page 36:
  • The guru-chela relationship was a theme in many of Nicholas's paintings.2002, Warrior of Light: The Life of Nicholas Roerich: Artist, Himalayan Explorer, and Visionary, page 52:
  • This, of course, is done by the guru as the result of a long process in which his consciousness must merge with that of the chela and wherein the chela is absorbed essentially into the guru.2007, Michael Bertiaux, The Voudon Gnostic Workbook: Expanded Edition, page 455:

Forms of chela

pluralchelae
pluralchelas
pluralchele

Plural of chela: chelae

Origin of chela

From Latin chele, from Ancient Greek χηλή (khēlḗ).

Borrowed from Hindi चेला (celā).

Words formed from chela

Questions about chela

What does chela mean?
Chela means a pincer-like claw of a crustacean or arachnid.
What is chela in Tamil?
Chela in Tamil is இடுக்கி, கொடுக்கு. See Chela meaning in Tamil.
How do you use chela in a sentence?
The two brushes on each chela snap open into semicircular fans, forming fine-mesh baskets that passively filter water.
What part of speech is chela?
Chela is a noun.
How do you pronounce chela?
Chela is pronounced /ˈkilə/ (US).
What is the plural of chela?
The plural of chela is chelae.

Words near chela in the dictionary

  1. Chekoslovakia
  2. Chekoslovakian
  3. cheks
  4. Chel
  5. Chel Menar
  6. chela
  7. chelae
  8. chelah
  9. chelahs
  10. chelam
  11. chelams

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: chela (page history and authors); chela (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); chela (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-chela.wav.

Cite this entry: “chela.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/chela. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.