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cell

/sɛl/
nounverb

CELL meaning: a small room for one person, including a hermit’s dwelling, a monastic room, or a prison room; it scores 6 Scrabble points.

NWL Collins ENABLE

Noun 4 meanings

  1. A single-room dwelling for a hermit.

  2. A small room in a monastery or nunnery accommodating one person.

    “Gregor Mendel must have spent a good amount of time outside of his cell.”

  3. A room in a prison or jail for one or more inmates.

    “The combatants spent the night in separate cells.”

  4. Each of the small hexagonal compartments in a honeycomb.

Verb 1 meaning

  1. To place or enclose in a cell.

Definitions: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA) via Kaikki/Wiktextract

Where it comes from

Etymology

From Middle English celle, selle, from Old English cell (attested in inflected forms), from Latin cella (“chamber, small room, compartment”), later reinforced by Old French cel, sele, Old French cele. Ultimately from Proto-Italic *kelnā, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱelneh₂, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱel- (“to cover”).

Similar and opposite words

Similar
cyte

CELL also names each small hexagonal compartment in a honeycomb, so its definitions share the idea of a bounded space. The spelling uses C, E, and two L tiles; that double L matters when you compare it with one-letter neighbours. Its six-point total comes from a C worth 3 and three one-point letters, before any board bonuses.

CELL at a glance

  • Scrabble value: 6 points, with C contributing 3 and E, L, and L contributing 1 each.
  • Anagrams: none; rearranging C, E, L, and L does not produce a different word.
  • One-letter neighbours: 20, including WELL, TELL, CALL, SELL, and BELL.
  • Rhymes: 12 listed, including WELL, TELL, SELL, and SHELL.
  • Definition range: a hermit’s room, a monastic room, a prison room, or a honeycomb compartment.

CELL meaning across different settings

Cell means a small, separate room. The definition includes a hermit’s single-room dwelling, a one-person room in a monastery or nunnery, and a prison room for one or more inmates. The setting and occupants change, but each sense describes a bounded space.

A honeycomb cell is different in scale, not shape: it is one of the small hexagonal compartments bees build. That gives CELL a natural-history sense alongside its human-room meanings, rather than making the word only a prison term.

How CELL’s score and neighbours work

CELL has a six-point tile value: C supplies half the score, while E and both L tiles add one each. Protect the C for a premium letter square; placing a one-point L there gains less before board bonuses. The face value is the tile total, not a promise of a particular board result.

There is no anagram, but the 20 one-letter neighbours give you alternatives when one tile is wrong. WELL, TELL, CALL, SELL, and BELL preserve the ending while changing the first letter; CEIL and CELT keep the opening C and change a later tile. The CELL meaning is distinct, so a near-spelling is not automatically a synonym.

Rhymes with cell

All rhymes

One letter away

Change one letter, keep the rest

Questions people ask

How many points is CELL worth in Scrabble?
CELL scores 6 points in Scrabble before any board-square bonuses. Its C is worth 3, and E plus both L tiles are worth 1 each, so the tile values add to 6. A premium letter square can change the played total.
Can I make another word by rearranging CELL?
No. The letters C, E, L, and L have zero listed anagrams, so rearranging them does not produce a different word in this set. Change one tile instead: the neighbours include CALL, CEIL, and CELT.
Which four-letter words are one tile away from CELL?
WELL, TELL, CALL, SELL, and BELL are five examples that differ from CELL by one letter. The broader neighbour set contains 20 words, also including less familiar forms such as PELL and VELL. The shared ending makes the first-letter swaps easiest to spot.

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