multicellular

adjective

mul·​ti·​cel·​lu·​lar ˌməl-tē-ˈsel-yə-lər 

-ˌtī-

: having, made up of, or involving more than one and usually many cells especially of living matter

It is probable that with a few exceptions all the cells in a multicellular organism have the same genetic information encoded in the chains of nucleotide bases that make up their DNA.

—James E. Darnell, Jr.

A biofilm is a community of bacteria that use intercellular signaling to establish complex multicellular structures by coordinating gene expression and phenotypic changes.

—J. Christopher Post et al.

multicellularity

ˌməl-tē-ˌsel-yə-ˈler-ə-tē 

-ˌtī-

-ˈla-rə-

noun

When is an organism multicellular? A generic answer … is that multicellularity results when two or more neighboring cells adhere, interact, and physiologically communicate.

—Karl J. Niklas

Did you know?

Multicellular organisms are distinguished from the very primitive single-celled organisms—bacteria, algae, amoebas, etc. Even sponges, simple as they are, have specialized cell types such as digestive cells. In complex multicellular organisms, only the surface cells can exchange substances with the external environment, so the organisms have developed transport systems such as the circulatory system, in which the blood brings gases and nutrients to the cells and removes waste products from them.

Examples of multicellular in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Experts assumed, though, that this skill was unique to multicellular organisms, which had bodies made of many cells for which other cells could die. —Quanta Magazine, 6 Mar. 2024

The appearance of multicellular organisms was a key evolutionary advance for life on Earth. —Byelizabeth Pennisi, science.org, 18 Oct. 2022

An embryo is one of the earliest stages of development of a multicellular organism. —Annalisa Merelli, STAT, 22 Feb. 2024

While bacteria, viruses and many protists frequently exchange DNA, multicellular animals have protective barriers around their reproductive cells that generally prevent the uptake of foreign DNA. —Saugat Bolakhe, Quanta Magazine, 3 Aug. 2023

Not long after first proposing the concept, researchers successfully harvested material from frog embryos to create their first multicellular biobots in 2020. —Andrew Paul, Popular Science, 30 Nov. 2023

Manipulating molecular pathways in complex multicellular plants that take months to grow is much trickier than running experiments in microbes, where a scientist can make a genetic tweak and observe the consequences in a single sitting. —WIRED, 30 Oct. 2023

In multicellular eukaryotes, steroids perform various functions; among other things, they’re used as signaling molecules, like estrogen and testosterone. —John Timmer, Ars Technica, 9 June 2023

Environmental conditions were unsuitable for large multicellular organisms due to low oxygen levels. —Eliot Bush, Scientific American, 7 Nov. 2023

Word History

First Known Use

1852, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

multicellular

adjective

mul·​ti·​cel·​lu·​lar

ˌməl-ti-ˈsel-yə-lər,

-ˌtī-

: having or consisting of many cells

multicellularity

-ˌsel-yə-ˈlar-ət-ē

noun

Medical Definition

multicellular

adjective

mul·​ti·​cel·​lu·​lar -ˈsel-yə-lər 

: having or consisting of many cells

multicellularity

-ˌsel-yə-ˈlar-ət-ē 

noun

plural multicellularities