from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Cellular \Cel"lu*lar\ (s[e^]l"[u^]*l[~e]r; 135), a. [L. cellula
a little cell: cf. F. cellulaire. See {Cellule}.]
1. Consisting of, or containing, cells; of or pertaining to a
cell or cells.
[1913 Webster]
2. porous; containing cavities.
[PJC]
3. pertaining to or using a system of transmission of
telephone signals by radio, in which areas are divided
into geographical parts (cells), each of which is served
by a transmitter whose range is limited to that region,
thus permitting a single transmission frequency to be used
simulataneously in different parts of the same area.
Cellular telephones are typically small and battery
powered, allowing a subscriber with such a telephone to
carry the telephone in a pocket or purse, over the entire
area served, and to be contacted by a single telephone
number. The system became widespread and popular in the
1980's and 1990's; as, cellular telephones sometimes lose
their link unpredictably.
[PJC]
{Cellular plants}, {Cellular cryptogams} (Bot.), those
flowerless plants which have no ducts or fiber in their
tissue, as mosses, fungi, lichens, and alg[ae].
{Cellular theory}, or {Cell theory} (Biol.), a theory,
according to which the essential element of every tissue,
either vegetable or animal, is a cell; the whole series of
cells having been formed from the development of the germ
cell and by differentiation converted into tissues and
organs which, both in plants and animals, are to be
considered as a mass of minute cells communicating with
each other.
{Cellular tissue}.
(a) (Anat.) See {conjunctive tissue} under {Conjunctive}.
(b) (Bot.) Tissue composed entirely of parenchyma, and
having no woody fiber or ducts.
[1913 Webster]