Standard Lemma guide

cellulose

adj · noun · 4 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • UK: /ˈsɛljʊləʊz/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • General-American: /ˈsɛljəloʊs/
  • CMU ARPABET: S EH1 L Y AH0 L OW2 S Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

adj

Meaning 1

Consisting of, or containing, cells.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: not-comparable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

A complex carbohydrate that forms the main constituent of the cell wall in most plants and is important in the manufacture of numerous products, such as paper, textiles, pharmaceuticals, and explosives.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

A polysaccharide containing many glucose units in parallel chains.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Topics: biochemistry, biology, chemistry, microbiology, natural-sciences, physical-sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

noun

Meaning 4

a polysaccharide that is the chief constituent of all plant tissues and fibers

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: polysaccharide, polyose

Narrower terms: carboxymethyl cellulose, diethylaminoethyl cellulose, DEAE cellulose, pulp, pectin

History

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱel-der. Latin cella Proto-Indo-European *-lós Proto-Indo-European *-elós Proto-Italic *-elos Latin -ula Latin cellulabor. French cellule French -ose French cellulosebor. English cellulose Borrowed from French cellulose.

Across languages

Translations

52 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Arabic: سِلْيُولُوز (silyulūz) — the polysaccharide cellulose
  • Armenian: թաղանթանյութ (tʻaġantʻanyutʻ) — the polysaccharide cellulose
  • Armenian: բջջանյութ (bǰǰanyutʻ) — the polysaccharide cellulose
  • Catalan: cel·lulosa — the polysaccharide cellulose
  • Chinese Mandarin: 纖維素 /纤维素 (xiānwéisù) — the polysaccharide cellulose
  • Czech: celulóza — the polysaccharide cellulose
  • Danish: cellulose — the polysaccharide cellulose
  • Dutch: cellulose — the polysaccharide cellulose
  • Esperanto: celulozo — the polysaccharide cellulose
  • Estonian: tselluloos — the polysaccharide cellulose
  • Faroese: viðarmeyk — the polysaccharide cellulose
  • Finnish: selluloosa — the polysaccharide cellulose
  • French: cellulose — the polysaccharide cellulose
  • Georgian: ცელულოზა (celuloza) — the polysaccharide cellulose
  • German: Zellulose — the polysaccharide cellulose
  • German: Zellstoff — the polysaccharide cellulose
  • Greek: κυτταρίνη (kyttaríni) — the polysaccharide cellulose
  • Hebrew: תאית — the polysaccharide cellulose
  • Hindi: कोशाधु (kośādhu) — the polysaccharide cellulose
  • Hungarian: cellulóz — the polysaccharide cellulose
  • Icelandic: sellulósi — the polysaccharide cellulose
  • Icelandic: beðmi — the polysaccharide cellulose
  • Ido: celuloso — the polysaccharide cellulose
  • Indonesian: selulosa — the polysaccharide cellulose
  • Italian: cellulosa — the polysaccharide cellulose
  • Japanese: セルロース (serurōsu) — the polysaccharide cellulose
  • Korean: 셀룰로스 (sellulloseu) — the polysaccharide cellulose
  • Latin: cellulosum — the polysaccharide cellulose
  • Malay: selulosa — the polysaccharide cellulose
  • Māori: pūtauhuka — the polysaccharide cellulose
  • Marathi: कोशाधु (kośādhu) — the polysaccharide cellulose
  • Nepali: कोशाधु (kośādhu) — the polysaccharide cellulose
  • Norwegian Bokmål: cellulose — the polysaccharide cellulose
  • Norwegian Bokmål: sellulose — the polysaccharide cellulose
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: cellulose — the polysaccharide cellulose
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: sellulose — the polysaccharide cellulose
  • Persian: سلولز (seluloz) — the polysaccharide cellulose
  • Polish: celuloza — the polysaccharide cellulose
  • Portuguese: celulose — the polysaccharide cellulose
  • Romanian: celuloză — the polysaccharide cellulose
  • Russian: целлюло́за (celljulóza) — the polysaccharide cellulose
  • Russian: клетча́тка (kletčátka) — the polysaccharide cellulose
  • Scottish Gaelic: ceallalos — the polysaccharide cellulose
  • Slovene: celuloza — the polysaccharide cellulose
  • Spanish: celulosa — the polysaccharide cellulose
  • Swahili: selulosi — the polysaccharide cellulose
  • Swedish: cellulosa — the polysaccharide cellulose
  • Thai: เซลลูโลส — the polysaccharide cellulose
  • Turkish: selüloz — the polysaccharide cellulose
  • Ukrainian: целюло́за (celjulóza) — the polysaccharide cellulose
  • Ukrainian: кліткови́на (klitkovýna) — the polysaccharide cellulose
  • Volapük: sälülod — the polysaccharide cellulose
Real reading context

cellulose in complete knowledge articles