cel

cel

1. (international standards) ISO 639-2 & ISO 639-5 language code for Celtic languages.

• cell

• IPA^(key): /sɛl/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Homophones: cell, sell
• Rhymes: -ɛl

Clipping of celluloid.

cel (plural cels)

1. A piece of celluloid on which has been drawn a frame of an animated film.
   • 2008 June 22, Michael Hirschorn, “Success Story 2”, in New York Times‎^[2]:

     After Jobs’s $5 million offer was rejected, the team attempted to do a deal with Disney, then a bastion of hand-painted cel animation.

Clipping of celibate.

cel (plural cels)

1. Clipping of celibacy or celibate.

• celibate
• truecel/trucel

• CLE, ECL, LCE, LEC

Inherited from Latin caelum, from Proto-Italic *kailom, from Proto-Indo-European *keh₂i-lom (“whole”), from *keh₂i-. Compare Occitan cèl.

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencia) [ˈsɛl]

• Audio:

  (file)

cel m (plural cels)

1. sky
2. heaven

• arc del cel
• celobert
• gratacel

• celeste

• “cel”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “cel”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025
• “cel” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “cel” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

cel

1. (Northern dialect) gale, wind

• Literary form: yel

• IPA^(key): [ˈt͡sɛl]

cel f

1. genitive plural of cela

cel n

1. genitive plural of clo

cel

1. second-person singular imperative of celit

From Middle Dutch celle, from Latin cella.

• IPA^(key): /sɛl/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: cel
• Rhymes: -ɛl

cel f (plural cellen, diminutive celletje n)

1. cell (a compartment)
   1. component of a battery
   2. (biology) component of a body tissue
   3. (architecture) a small room, such as a prison or cloister cell
   4. (entomology) cell – of a honeycomb
   5. (computer science) cell – of a table

• (prison cell): gevangeniscel
• (cloister cell): kloostercel

• Afrikaans: sel
• → Indonesian: sel
• → Papiamentu: sèl

cel

1. inflection of celt:
   1. second-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

From Latin caelum.

cel m

1. (Old Lombard) sky
2. (Old Lombard) heaven

• cil, chil, chel

From an earlier cil, from Vulgar Latin *ecce ille, a compound of Latin ecce and ille. Largely replaced cist used in earlier Old French.

• IPA^(key): (unstressed) /t͡səl/
• IPA^(key): (stressed) /ˈt͡sɛl/

cel m (oblique and nominative feminine singular cele)

1. this (the one in question)

• cist (chiefly 12^th and 13^th centuries)

• Middle French: cel
  • French: ce
  • Lorrain: ceil

From Latin caelum.

cel m

1. Heaven

• Occitan: cèl, ciau, ciel, cèu

Borrowed from Old Czech cíl.^[1][2] First attested in the fifteenth century.

• IPA^(key): (10^th–15^th CE) /t͡sʲɛːlʲ/
• IPA^(key): (15^th CE) /t͡sʲelʲ/

cel m animacy unattested

1. target (butt or mark to shoot at, as for practice, or to test the accuracy of a firearm, or the force of a projectile)
   • 1930 [c. 1455], “I Reg”, in Ludwik Bernacki, editor, Biblia królowej Zofii (Biblia szaroszpatacka)‎^[3], 20, 20:

     A ia trsy strzali wipusczø podle gego y wistrzelyø, iako bich zwikal strzelyacz ku celu (quasi exercens me ad signum)

     [A ja trzy strzały wypuszczę podle jego i wystrzelę, jako bych zwykał strzelać ku celu (quasi exercens me ad signum)]

• Polish: cel, cyl, czel (Middle Polish)
  • → Belarusian: цэль (celʹ)
  • → Esperanto: celo
  • → Kashubian: cél
  • → Slovincian: cél
  • → Russian: цель (celʹ), цѣль (cělʹ) — Pre-reform orthography (1918)
    • → Yakut: сыал (sıal)
  • → Ukrainian: ціль (cilʹ)
• Silesian: cyl

• Boryś, Wiesław (2005) “cel”, in Słownik etymologiczny języka polskiego (in Polish), Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie, →ISBN
• B. Sieradzka-Baziur, Ewa Deptuchowa, Joanna Duska, Mariusz Frodyma, Beata Hejmo, Dorota Janeczko, Katarzyna Jasińska, Krystyna Kajtoch, Joanna Kozioł, Marian Kucała, Dorota Mika, Gabriela Niemiec, Urszula Poprawska, Elżbieta Supranowicz, Ludwika Szelachowska-Winiarzowa, Zofia Wanicowa, Piotr Szpor, Bartłomiej Borek, editors (2011–2015), “cel”, in Słownik pojęciowy języka staropolskiego [Conceptual Dictionary of Old Polish] (in Polish), Kraków: IJP PAN, →ISBN

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛl
• Syllabification: cel

Inherited from Old Polish cel. Compare German Ziel.

cel m inan

1. goal, aim, objective, target (that which one attempts to achieve)
2. target (butt or mark to shoot at, as for practice, or to test the accuracy of a firearm, or the force of a projectile)
3. target, aim (person or object that is the focus of one's actions)
4. goal, aim, objective; destination (place where one would like to go)
5. (archaic, firearms) foresight (front sight of a rifle)

   Synonym: muszka

6. (Middle Polish) end point, borderline
7. (Middle Polish) deadline

   Synonym: termin

8. (Middle Polish) racetrack; stadium
9. (Middle Polish) measuring instrument for determining the direction of a straight line (Is there an English equivalent to this definition?)
10. (Middle Polish) respect

    Synonyms: poważanie, szacunek

11. (Middle Polish) abyss

    Synonym: przepaść

• cyl, czel (Middle Polish)

• → Belarusian: цэль (celʹ)
• → Esperanto: celo
• → Kashubian: cél
• → Slovincian: cél
• → Russian: цель (celʹ), цѣль (cělʹ) — Pre-reform orthography (1918)
  • → Yakut: сыал (sıal)
• → Ukrainian: ціль (cilʹ)

According to Słownik frekwencyjny polszczyzny współczesnej (1990), cel is one of the most used words in Polish, appearing 79 times in scientific texts, 69 times in news, 85 times in essays, 15 times in fiction, and 18 times in plays, each out of a corpus of 100,000 words, totaling 266 times, making it the 190th most common word in a corpus of 500,000 words.^[1]

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

cel f

1. genitive plural of cela

• cel in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• cel in Polish dictionaries at PWN
• Maria Renata Mayenowa, Stanisław Rospond, Witold Taszycki, Stefan Hrabec, Władysław Kuraszkiewicz (2010-2023) “cel”, in Słownik Polszczyzny XVI Wieku [A Dictionary of 16th Century Polish]
• Krystyna Siekierska (22.01.2019) “CEL”, in Elektroniczny Słownik Języka Polskiego XVII i XVIII Wieku [Electronic Dictionary of the Polish Language of the XVII and XVIII Century]
• Samuel Bogumił Linde (1807–1814) “cel”, in Słownik języka polskiego
• Aleksander Zdanowicz (1861) “cel”, in Słownik języka polskiego, Wilno 1861
• J. Karłowicz, A. Kryński, W. Niedźwiedzki, editors (1900), “cel”, in Słownik języka polskiego (in Polish), volume 1, Warsaw, page 259

Clipping of celular.

cel m (plural cels)

1. (Brazil, Internet slang) mobile phone

   Synonym: celular

• чел (cel) — post-1930s Cyrillic spelling

From acel.

• IPA^(key): [tʃel]

cel m or n (feminine singular cea, masculine plural cei, feminine and neuter plural cele)

1. (popular) that

   Synonyms: acel, acela, ăl, ăla

cel m or n (feminine singular cea, masculine plural cei, feminine and neuter plural cele)

1. the

cel m or n (feminine singular cea, masculine plural cei, feminine and neuter plural cele)

1. the one (that is)

   Cel bogat face cum vrea, cel sărac face cum poate.

   The rich one does as he pleases, the poor one does as he can.

• celălalt

• IPA^(key): /t͡séːʋ/

cẹ̑ł (not comparable)

1. whole

The diacritics used in this section of the entry are non-tonal. If you are a native tonal speaker, please help by adding the tonal marks.

Hard
	masculine	feminine	neuter
nom. sing.	cél	céla	célo
singular
	masculine	feminine	neuter
nominative	cél ind céli def	céla	célo
genitive	célega	céle	célega
dative	célemu	céli	célemu
accusative	nominativeinan or genitiveanim	célo	célo
locative	célem	céli	célem
instrumental	célim	célo	célim
dual
	masculine	feminine	neuter
nominative	céla	céli	céli
genitive	célih	célih	célih
dative	célima	célima	célima
accusative	céla	céli	céli
locative	célih	célih	célih
instrumental	célima	célima	célima
plural
	masculine	feminine	neuter
nominative	céli	céle	céla
genitive	célih	célih	célih
dative	célim	célim	célim
accusative	céle	céle	céla
locative	célih	célih	célih
instrumental	célimi	célimi	célimi

This adjective needs an inflection-table template.

• “cel”, in Slovarji Inštituta za slovenski jezik Frana Ramovša ZRC SAZU (in Slovene), 2014–2025

Clipping of celular.

• IPA^(key): /ˈθel/ [ˈθel] (Spain)
• IPA^(key): /ˈsel/ [ˈsel] (Latin America, Philippines)
• Rhymes: -el
• Syllabification: cel

cel m (plural celes)

1. (Latin America, US, Philippines) cell phone, mobile phone

   Synonym: celular

   • 2024, “LFO (Lupe Finds Oliveros)”, in Phasor, performed by Helado Negro:

     Dedo congelado en mi cel / Foto selfie otra vez / Y ya se fue el sol

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

• IPA^(key): [tʃel]

cel (nominative plural cels)

1. cherry