Plural of flagellum: whip-like structures that stick out from cells, allowing bacteria and single-celled organisms to swim.
From Latin 'flagellum' meaning whip; the term was applied to biological structures because of their resemblance to whips, used in microbiology since the 1800s.
Bacterial flagella spin at 100,000 rotations per minute—faster than any human-made turbine—and they work as the world's tiniest motors, making bacteria arguably the most efficient swimmers relative to their size.
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