Origin: Latin suffix -ular
Cellular has 4 different meanings across 1 category:
A cellular phone (mobile phone).
"She answered her call on her new cellular while waiting for the bus."
In plain English: A cellular is a small, single room or compartment inside a larger structure where someone lives or works alone.
"Her phone plan offers generous data for cellular service."
Usage: Use "cellular" as a noun only in the informal phrase "on cellular" or "get off your cellular" to mean using a mobile phone. Standard English prefers the adjective form "cellular" before nouns like "phone" rather than standing alone as a countable object.
characterized by or divided into or containing cells or compartments (the smallest organizational or structural unit of an organism or organization)
"the cellular construction of a beehive"
"any effective opposition to a totalitarian regime must be secretive and cellular"
Of, relating to, consisting of, or resembling a cell or cells.
"The cellular structure of the sponge allowed water to flow through its many tiny pores."
In plain English: Cellular means made up of cells, which are the tiny building blocks that make up all living things.
"The cellular phone network expanded to cover the entire mountain range."
Usage: Use "cellular" to describe things made up of biological cells, such as tissue structure, or to refer to the texture of materials like leather that mimics those small, hexagonal patterns. Avoid using it simply to mean "mobile phone related," which is covered by the specific term "cellular network."
The word cellular comes from New Latin, where it originally described something related to a small room or compartment known as a cell. It entered English with this same meaning of being composed of or resembling cells.