Word.ws English Dictionary

organelle

/ˌɔɹ.ɡənˈɛl/

organelle noun: a specialized structure found inside cells that carries out a specific life process (e.g. ribosomes, vacuoles).

Noun

organelle (plural organelles)

  1. A specialized structure found inside cells that carries out a specific life process (e.g. ribosomes, vacuoles).
    • Like organelles within a single cell, whole new specializations began to develop.1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 161
    • The close analogies between DNA-containing eukaryotic cell organelles and microbial symbionts require revision of classic cell theory, wrote Scwemmler and Schenk (1980) on introducing the field of endocytobiology.1991, Lynn Margulis, René Fester, Symbiosis as a Source of Evolutionary Innovation
    Synonyms:
    organella

organelle meaning in Tamil, Indonesian and Vietnamese

organelle in Tamil

உள்ளுறுப்பு, உடல் அணு உள் அமைப்பு, நுண் உறுப்பு, புன்னங்கம்

organelle in Indonesian

a membrane bound compartment found within cells
organel

organelle in Vietnamese

a membrane bound compartment found within cells
bào quan

Examples of organelle in a sentence

  • Nematocysts or stinging cells are specialised organelles which act for defence and offence of Hydra.
  • In response, cells had to transport excess zinc ions into the zincosome and organelles.
  • Hydrogenosomes, like almost all other organelles, always grow by proliferation of preexisting organelles.

All 12 example sentences with organelle

Synonyms of organelle

Forms of organelle

pluralorganelles

Origin of organelle

From organ + -elle.

Words formed from organelle

Words that rhyme with organelle

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about organelle

What does organelle mean?
Organelle means a specialized structure found inside cells that carries out a specific life process (e.g. ribosomes, vacuoles).
What is organelle in Tamil?
Organelle in Tamil is உள்ளுறுப்பு, உடல் அணு உள் அமைப்பு, நுண் உறுப்பு. See Organelle meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is organelle?
Organelle is a noun.
How do you pronounce organelle?
Organelle is pronounced /ˌɔɹ.ɡənˈɛl/ (US).
What is the plural of organelle?
The plural of organelle is organelles.

Words near organelle in the dictionary

  1. organella
  2. organellae
  3. organellar
  4. organellar DNA
  5. organellar DNAs
  6. organelle
  7. organelles
  8. organellogenesis
  9. organellogenetic
  10. organellology
  11. organellometry

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: organelle (page history and authors); organelle (Tamil 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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-organelle.ogg.

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