intracellular
adj.adj. located or happening inside a cell. It describes things that stay within the tiny building blocks of a living body.
adj. located or occurring within a cell or cells. Often contrasted with extracellular and typically used in biological or medical contexts.
The virus needs to reach the intracellular space to replicate.
Scientists are studying how intracellular signals tell a cell when it is time to divide.
The researchers observed that the drug effectively increased intracellular calcium levels, which triggered a series of metabolic changes within the treated tissue samples.
From intra- + cellular.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Typically used in technical or scientific contexts; often precedes the noun it modifies.
- Adjectivecellular
- Adjectiveextracellular
- Adjectiveintracellular
Last updated May 11, 2026