Word.ws English Dictionary

cilia

Syllables: ci·li·a/ˈsɪ.li.ə/

cilia is the plural of cilium.

Meaning of cilium

Noun

cilium (plural cilia)

  1. 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.
    • 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.1892, Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Claus, edited by F. G. Heathcote, Elementary Text-book of Zoology
  2. One of the fine hairs along an insect's wing.
  3. One of the hairs or similar protrusions along the margin of an organ.
  4. An eyelash.

Origin of cilia

From Latin cilia; by surface analysis, cili(um) + -a.

Words formed from cilia

Phrases with cilia

Words that rhyme with cilia

36 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about cilia

What is cilia the plural of?
Cilia is the plural of cilium.
How do you pronounce cilia?
Cilia is pronounced /ˈsɪ.li.ə/.

Words near cilia in the dictionary

  1. Cilfynydd
  2. cilgavimab
  3. Cilgerran
  4. Cilgwyn
  5. Cili
  6. cilia
  7. cilial
  8. ciliaphore
  9. ciliaphores
  10. ciliary
  11. ciliary arteries

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cilia (page history and authors); cilium (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.

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