somatic cell

somatic cell

n. Any cell of a multicellular organism other than a germ cell. Also called body cell.

somatic cell

n (Biology) any of the cells of a plant or animal except the reproductive cells. Compare germ cell

somat′ic cell′

n. 1. one of the cells that take part in the formation of the body, becoming differentiated into the various tissues, organs, etc. 2. any cell of the body that is not a sexually reproductive cell (opposed to germ cell). [1885–90]

Thesaurus

Noun

1.

somatic cell - any of the cells of a plant or animal except the reproductive cells; a cell that does not participate in the production of gametes; "somatic cells are produced from preexisting cells";vegetative cellcell - (biology) the basic structural and functional unit of all organisms; they may exist as independent units of life (as in monads) or may form colonies or tissues as in higher plants and animalsskin cell - any of the cells making up the skinepithelial cell - one of the closely packed cells forming the epitheliumneoplastic cell - a cell that is part of tumorbone cell - a cell that is part of a boneblood cell, blood corpuscle, corpuscle - either of two types of cells (erythrocytes and leukocytes) and sometimes including plateletsphagocyte, scavenger cell - a cell that engulfs and digests debris and invading microorganismsvisual cell - one of the cells of the retina that is sensitive to lightadipose cell, fat cell - cells composed of fatmuscle cell, muscle fiber, muscle fibre - an elongated contractile cell that forms the muscles of the bodySchwann cell - any cell that covers the nerve fibers in the peripheral nervous system and forms the myelin sheathnerve cell, neuron - a cell that is specialized to conduct nerve impulsesglial cell, neurogliacyte, neuroglial cell - a cell of the neurogliahybridoma - a hybrid cell resulting from the fusion of a lymphocyte and a tumor cell; used to culture a specific monoclonal antibodylabrocyte, mast cell, mastocyte - a large connective tissue cell that contains histamine and heparin and serotonin which are released in allergic reactions or in response to injury or inflammationstem cell - an undifferentiated cell whose daughter cells may differentiate into other cell types (such as blood cells)target cell - any cell that has a specific receptor for an antigen or antibody or hormone or drug, or is the focus of contact by a virus or phagocyte or nerve fiber etc.