Cell

Webster's Dictionary

(1): (n.) The space between the ribs of a vaulted roof.

(2): (n.) Same as Cella.

(3): (n.) A jar of vessel, or a division of a compound vessel, for holding the exciting fluid of a battery.

(4): (n.) One of the minute elementary structures, of which the greater part of the various tissues and organs of animals and plants are composed.

(5): (n.) A very small and close apartment, as in a prison or in a monastery or convent; the hut of a hermit.

(6): (n.) Any small cavity, or hollow place.

(7): (v. t.) To place or inclose in a cell.

(8): (n.) A small religious house attached to a monastery or convent.

Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words

1: Οἴκημα (Strong'S #3612 — Noun Neuter — oikema — oy'-kay-mah )

lit., "a habitation" (akin to oikeo, "to dwell"), is euphemistically put for "a prison," in  Acts 12:7 , RV, "cell." See Prison.

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

(Lat. cella).

1. In classical archseology Cella is applied to a cave or cellar to preserve wine, oil, or other provision. It also was applied to the enclosed space of a temple, to bath-rooms, to the sleeping apartments of slaves.

2. From this last use of the word it was transferred in the fourth century to the sleeping apartments of monks and nuns in cloisters (q.v.). These at first held three or four occupants, but later they usually received but one person. These cells are small, have one door and window, and are generally plainly furnished.

3. The word was also applied to a monastic dwelling, either for a single monk or for a community, subordinate to some great abbey. The former was mostly the abode of hermits, and erected in solitary places. (See Hermitage). In the Quirinal Palace at Rome are the cells of the conclave (q.v.).

Cell (ADDENDUM)

in ecclesiastical usage denotes

(1) a small apartment;

(2) the small dwelling of a hermit or a Carthusian; that of the latter contained a bedroom, dayroom, and study;

(3) a cubiculum, or partitioned sleeping room in a dormitory.

Cell,

i.e. Obedience or ABBATIAL; was a dependent religious house founded on an abbey estate, under the jurisdiction of the abbot of the mother Church. About the middle of the 11th century, owing to the creation of a new dignitary, the prior, in the Abbey of Clugni, these establishments received the designation of priories.