Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A differentiated structure within a cell, such as a mitochondrion, vacuole, or chloroplast, that performs a specific function.
Wiktionary
- n. A specialized structure found inside cells that carries out a specific life process (e.g. ribosomes, vacuoles).
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. a specialized part of a cell performing a specific function, usually visible under the microscope as a distinct object; it is analogous to an organ{2}, but on a microscopic scale.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a specialized part of a cell; analogous to an organ
Etymologies
- New Latin organella, diminutive of Medieval Latin organum, organ of the body, from Latin, implement, tool; see organ.
Examples
“You would conjecture that some organelle is designed, say.”
“This organelle is called the flagellum, made of a rotary motor and a thin helical filament that grows up to about 15 micron.”
A self-assembling nanomachine with fine switching capability
“Let me say here only that this organelle is exquisitely sensitive to light, to gravity, to stretch, and to a stimulus which we believe to be olfactory, and illustrate it with a few slides.”
“Carsonella might one day lose its identity altogether and become a permanent organ, or "organelle," inside the insect’s cell, the researcher speculate.”
Discovery of World’s Smallest Genome of Living Creatures | Impact Lab
“* The first artificial cell organelle may help researchers find a way to make bioengineered heparin and other synthetic drugs.”
“Here's a test with a science twist: which cell organelle are you?”
“Inside, the stunned viewers could see every organelle of the original amoeba, perfectly recreated.”
“The flagellum is IC as a motility organelle, if you remove one part, the machine doesn't work.”
“Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz: chief, section on organelle biology, cell biology and metabolism branch, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md.”
Sixteen Women Elected to National Academy of Sciences - Chronicle.com
“Now, I might not like this definition, but people often refer to any cellular structure as an organelle.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘organelle’.
chained_bear "A third theory argues that viruses were once part of a cell, an organelle, but broke away and began to evolve independently."
—John M. Barry, The Great Influenza (NY: Penguin Books, 2004), 99 Feb 11, 2009