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muscle cell

muscle cell

3 3.0
A long body cell that makes muscles move by becoming shorter and longer
  • noun
  • /ˈmʌsəl sɛl/
  • Specialized
translation icon : célula muscular
  • Researchers discovered that muscle cells adapt to resistance training by increasing in size and strength.
  • smooth muscle cells
  • vascular smooth muscle cells
  • muscle cell differentiation

When you have fat inside the muscle cell, that signal gets broken.

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Examples

  • But when you depolarize a muscle cell, it contracts.

  • If you exercise them, heart muscle cells might get bigger, but few or no new ones will be made.

    Academic text (2008)
  • When you have fat inside the muscle cell, that signal gets broken.

  • Now in the heart, action potential is moving from one heart muscle cell to another over the surface of the heart.

  • But muscle cells do have an action potential mechanism.

  • In nerve cells, sodium allows messages to be sent, and in muscle cells, it allows muscles to contract.

    Academic text (2012)
  • Muscle hypertrophy mostly relies on the increasing the size of muscle cells, which depends on increasing protein synthesis.

  • Muscle cells require an exquisite milieu to provide the metabolic needs demanded of the body.

    Academic text (2005)
  • So, this sugar builds up in the muscle cells, especially in the heart, the skeletal muscles, the diaphragm, which is why they have a hard time breathing.

  • To generate force, muscle cells contract and relax in a coordinated manner during physical activity.

Synonyms

muscle fiber
vsmuscle cell
  • Specialized
4 3.4

A long cell in the body that gets shorter to make the body move

is the general descriptive phrase focusing on length and movement
myocyte
vsmuscle cell
  • Specialized
2 8.0

A muscle cell that contracts to make parts of the body move

is the same concept expressed using a different term

How Automatic

heart muscle
  • Specialized
11 3.5
smooth muscle cell
  • Specialized
4.4
muscle cell
  • Specialized
3 3.0

Surface Forms

muscle cell singular
muscle cells plural

Morphology

muscle + cell

The term is transparently compositional: 'muscle' (tissue that produces movement) modifies 'cell' (a microscopic living unit), so a 'muscle cell' is readily understood as a cell that makes up muscle and contracts to produce movement. Noun–noun compounding of this kind is a regular, cross-linguistic pattern, so an average B1 learner who knows both words can infer the meaning.

Etymology

The compound muscle cell comes from two simple images: muscle, a word people long ago thought looked like a 'little mouse' moving under the skin, and cell, a word for a 'small room' or tiny part. So muscle cell means one of the tiny parts that can tighten and make a muscle move.