CILIA • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Cilia

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noun

Cilia n. pl.

(Anat.) The eyelashes.

(Biol.) Small, generally microscopic, vibrating appendages lining certain organs, as the air passages of the higher animals, and in the lower animals often covering also the whole or a part of the exterior. They are also found on some vegetable organisms. In the Infusoria, and many larval forms, they are locomotive organs.

(Bot.) Hairlike processes, commonly marginal and forming a fringe like the eyelash.

(Zool.) Small, vibratory, swimming organs, somewhat resembling true cilia, as those of Ctenophora.

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Etymology of 'Cilia'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Cilia" Quotes from Famous Books

... sexual intercourse, for these bodies are not always present in the semen of even healthy adult young men. Spermatozoa must not be mistaken for the Trichomonas vaginae found in the vaginae of some women. The latter have cilia surrounding ...

— Aids to Forensic Medicine and Toxicology • W. G. Aitchison Robertson

... God of the silver bow! whose care Chrysa surrounds, and Cilia's lovely vale; Whose sov'reign sway o'er Tenedos extends; O Smintheus, hear! if e'er my offered gifts Found favour in thy sight; if e'er to thee I burn'd the fat of bulls and choicest goats, Grant me this boon—upon the Grecian host Let thine unerring ...

— The Iliad • Homer

... they likewise react effectively to surrounding stimuli. Animals come to have definite "answers back," sometimes several, sometimes only one, as in the case of the Slipper Animalcule, which reverses its cilia when it comes within the sphere of some disturbing influence, retreats, and, turning upon itself tentatively, sets off again in the same general direction as before, but at an angle to the previous line. ...

— The Outline of Science, Vol. 1 (of 4) - A Plain Story Simply Told • J. Arthur Thomson

... in their proper shape and don't come from your whitish yellow lumps. The thing that comes out of a starfish egg is something like this [sketch], and swims about by its cilia. The starfish proper is formed inside, and it is ...

— The Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley Volume 3 • Leonard Huxley

... invagination, the blastopore passing to the position of the future mouth. By the development of a ciliated ring just in front of the mouth the embryo becomes a trochosphere. In the centre of the praeoral lobe is a tuft of cilia. Just behind the ciliated ring is a pair of larval eyes which disappear in the adult; these correspond to the cephalic eyes of Lamellibranchs. An ectodemic invagination forms a large mucous gland on the foot, which is ...

— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 6, Slice 2 - "Chicago, University of" to "Chiton" • Various

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