Skip to content
Main menu
  • Main page
  • Discover
  • Unexpected connections
  • Topics
  • Random article
  • Search
Your library
  • Saved articles
  • Recent discoveries
  • Rabbit-hole trails
Topic areas
  • Computer Science
  • Mathematics
  • Physics
  • Engineering
  • Biology
  • Economics
  • Curiosities
WikiholeDeeper into Wikipedia
EnglishEN
  • Saved
  • History

  • Article text and media come live from Wikipedia via the official MediaWiki API and are available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License; additional terms may apply. Each article links to its source and revision.
  • WikiHole is an independent project and is not affiliated with the Wikimedia Foundation.
  • How ranking works
  • All topics
  • Reading history
  • Random article
  • MediaWiki API

Cell (biology)

  • Article
  • Rabbit hole
  • Read
  • View history
Tools
Actions
  • Read
  • View history
General
  • Recent changes
  • Related articles
  • Random discovery
This article
Reading time
43 min
Topic
Biology
Quality
B-class
Dated
1665
Views
17k in 14 days
Last edited
9 Nov 2026
Print/export
  • Printable version
In other projects
  • Wikidata item
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rabbit hole:
  1. Cell (biology)
Cell (biology)
Basic unit of life forms
MeSHD002477
THH1.00.01.0.00001
FMA686465

The cell is the basic structural and functional unit of all forms of life or organisms. The term comes from the Latin word cellula meaning 'small room'. A biological cell basically consists of a semipermeable cell membrane enclosing cytoplasm that contains genetic material. Most cells are only visible under a microscope. Except for highly-differentiated cell types (examples include and ) most cells are capable of , and . Some types of cell are . Cells about four billion years ago.

red blood cells
gametes
replication
protein synthesis
motile
emerged on Earth

This article is about the basic unit of lifeforms. For the branch of biology that studies them, see Cell biology.

All organisms are grouped into prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Prokaryotes are single-celled and include archaea and bacteria. Eukaryotes can be single-celled or multicellular. Single-celled eukaryotes include most protists, some species of fungi (yeasts), and some species of algae. Multicellular eukaryotes include animals, plants, some species of fungi, and some species of algae. All multicellular organisms are made up of many different types of cell. The diploid cells that make up the body of an animal or plant are known as somatic cells, which excludes the haploid gametes.

Prokaryotes lack a membrane-bound nucleus and have a nucleoid instead. In eukaryotic cells, the nucleus is enclosed in the nuclear membrane. Eukaryotic cells contain other membrane-bound organelles such as mitochondria, which provide energy for cell functions, and chloroplasts, in plants that create sugars by photosynthesis. Other membrane-less organelles may be proteinaceous, such as the ribosomes present (though different) in both groups. A unique membrane-bound prokaryotic organelle, the magnetosome has been discovered in magnetotactic bacteria.

Cells were discovered by Robert Hooke in 1665, who named them after their resemblance to cells in a monastery. Cell theory was developed through the work of Matthias Jakob Schleiden in 1838 and Theodor Schwann in 1839, who established the cell as the basic structural unit of plants and animals.12 It states that all organisms are composed of one or more cells, that cells are the fundamental unit of structure and function in all organisms, and that all cells come from pre-existing cells.

Loading the rest of the article…

Recent changes

Rabbit hole

Where Cell (biology) leads. Every connection below has a source: a link in this article, a shared Wikipedia category, or CirrusSearch text similarity. Articles already on your trail are left out.

The rest of this article could not be loaded.

Wikipedia is rate limiting us right now. Try again in a minute.
Try again

Related articles are unavailable right now.

Wikipedia is rate limiting us right now. Try again in a minute.
Last edited
9 Nov 2026

Wikipedia did not return the list of recent edits.

View full revision history

General
  • Recent changes
  • Related articles
  • Random discovery
This article
Reading time
43 min
Topic
Biology
Quality
B-class
Dated
1665
Views
17k in 14 days
Last edited
9 Nov 2026
Print/export
  • Printable version
In other projects
  • Wikidata item
Last edited
9 Nov 2026