WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026
He′La cell′
(hel′ə),USA pronunciation [Biol.]
- a vigorous strain of laboratory-cultured cells descended from a human cervical cancer, used widely in research.
- after He(nrietta) La(cks), a patient at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, from whom the tissue was taken in 1951 prior to her death