ScienceAugust 16, 2026
cellulose
SEL-yoo-lohs
Definition
A complex carbohydrate that is the chief constituent of the cell walls of plants and provides structural support to their tissues.
Etymology
Derived from the French 'cellulose' and the Latin 'cellula' (a small room or chamber), which refers to the plant cells that are built from this fibrous material.
In the news
In this article, the word is used to describe a component of wood that is typically consumed and broken down by aerobic microbes and shipworms in oxygenated seawater.
At the bottom of the Black Sea, below about 150 metres, the water contains no oxygen at all, and shipwrecks preserved in that dead zone include a 2,400-year-old Greek merchant vessel found in 2018 with its mast, rudder and rowing benches still intact on the
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