| Sour-tasting material that dissolves metals and other materials | Acid |
| Medieval hypothetical process of transforming one thing into another, as cheaper metals into gold—also known as transmutation | Alchemy |
| Any strong base that is soluble in water and that neutralizes acids and forms salts with them | Alkal |
| Elements which exist in different forms and exhibit different properties | Allotropic states |
| Homogeneous mixture of 2 or more metals, such as bronze | Alloy |
| Lightweight, easily molded, silver-white metal that conducts heat and electricity and does not easily rust | Aluminum |
| Solid that does not keep a definite shape, such as sealing wax | Amorphous solid |
| Substance containing ethylene glycol that is added to the water of a car’s radiator to prevent it from freezing | Antifreeze |
| Equation that relates mathematically temperature and the fraction of molecules with sufficient energy to react | Arrhenius equation |
| Mixture of set proportion of 2 or more substances which boils at a constant temperature, retaining the same composition in the vapor state as in the liquid | Azeotrope |
| Portion of the emission spectra of hydrogen that occurs in the visible range | Balmer series |
| Classification for any compound that turns litmus blue or any of a number of bittertasting, caustic compounds | Base |
| Glass container with a lip for pouring used in chemistry labs | Beaker |
| Amount of heat required to raise the temperature of a kilogram of water by one degree Celsius | Calorie |
| Science of measuring heat flow | Calorimetry |
| Element contained in all organic compounds | Carbon |
| Radioactive isotope of carbon that contains 6 protons, 6 electrons, and 8 neutrons | Carbon 14 |
| Substance that increases the rate of a chemical reaction but is not consumed in the reaction | Catalyst |
| Self-linkage of atoms of the same element into chains or rings | Catenation |
| Change in which new kinds of matter are formed | Chemical change |
| Technique used to separate mixtures into their constituents by preferential adsorption on a stationary phase and attraction to the moving phase | Chromatography |
| Process of destroying a colloid by either heating it or adding an electrolyte | Coagulation |
| Burning or rapid oxidation of easily ignited materials by taking on oxygen | Combustion |
| Process of changing, or being changed, from a gas to a liquid | Condensation |
| Direct transmission of heat or other form of energy from one particle to another | Conduction |
| Principle holding that the total amount of energy in any closed system does not vary, although it can be changed from one form to another | Conservation of energy |
| Process by which metals are oxidized in the atmosphere | Corrosion |
| Orderly, three-dimensional arrangement of atoms, ions or molecules in a solid | Crystal lattice |
| Solid made up of one large crystal or many small crystals, that is, a material in which the atoms are arranged in a rigid geometrical shape | Crystalline solid |
| Loss of 2 hydrogen atoms for every oxygen atom | Dehydration |
| Ratio of an object’s mass to its volume | Density |
| Double sugar that is formed when 2 simple-sugar molecules in the cyclic form link together | Disaccharide |
| Separation of ions from the crystals of ionic compounds | Dissociation |
| Process of separating a liquid from a solution by changing the liquid into a vapor, then condensing the vapor into a liquid | Distillation |
| Passage of a gas through a tiny orifice into an evacuated chamber | Effusion |
| Substance that conducts electricity when dissolved in a solvent | Electrolyte |
| Property of a system equal to the internal energy of the system added to the product of the pressure of the system and the volume of the system | Enthalpy |
| Thermodynamic state property that measures the degree of disorder or randomness of a system | Entropy |
| State of an object in which opposing forces either exactly balance or equal each other | Equilibrium |
| Process by which a carboxylic acid reacts with an alcohol to form a compound that usually has a fruity odor | Esterification |
| Undesirable overgrowth of vegetation caused by high concentrations of plant nutrients in bodies of water | Eutrophication |
| Transformation of a liquid into a gas | Evaporation |
| Temperature at which something changes from a liquid to a solid | Freezing point |
| Phase of matter with no definite shape or volume | Gas |
| Tall, clear glass or plastic container used to find the volume of a liquid | Graduated cylinder |
| Amount of heat required to melt one gram of a substance | Heat of fusion |
| Equation used for acid/salt buffer calculations | Henderson-Hasselbalch equation |
| Compound containing only the elements hydrogen and carbon | Hydrocarbon |
| Colorless, odorless, gaseous element that burns easily and is the lightest of all elements | Hydrogen |
| Cation formed from a hydrogen ion and a water molecule | Hydronium ion |
| Educated guess | Hypothesis |
| Binary compounds involving two different halogens | Interhalogens |
| Atoms that have the same atomic number but different mass numbers | Isotope |
| Organic chemistry functional group consisting of a carbon with a double bonded oxygen and 2 carbon groups attached | Ketone |
| Extraction of metals from ores using aqueous chemical solutions | Leaching |
| Substance that can accept a pair of electrons into an empty orbital in the formation of a coordinate covalent bond | Lewis acid |
| Anion bonded to the central metal in a complex ion | Ligand |
| Form or state of matter having a definite volume but no shape and intermediate between a solid and a gas | Liquid |
| Measure of the quantity of material in an object | Mass |
| Difference between the nuclear mass of an atom and the sum of the masses of the protons and neutrons that comprise the nucleus of this atom | Mass defect |
| Total number of protons and neutrons in the nucleus of an atom | Mass number |
| Anything that has mass and takes up space | Matter |
| Temperature at which a substance changes from a solid to a liquid | Melting point |
| Attractive force between atoms in a solid metal or alloy, formed by valence electrons | Metallic bond |
| Element having properties of both a metal and a nonmetal | Metalloid |
| Adjective used to describe liquids that are soluble in one another | Miscible |
| Concentration of a solution expressed as the number of moles of solute in a liter of solution | Molarity |
| Concentration of a solution expressed in the number of moles of solute in 1000 grams of solvent | Molality. |
| Smallest particle into which a compound can be divided without changing its properties | Molecule |
| Colorless, odorless, tasteless gaseous element that makes up about 78% of the atmosphere by volume | Nitrogen |
| Concentration of a solution as a ratio of gram equivalent weight of solute per liter of solution | Normality |
| Having to do with compounds containing carbon | Organic |
| Basic chemical reaction that supplies animals with energy | Oxidation |
| Gas released into the atmosphere during the plant’s conversion of sunlight into food | Oxygen |
| Molecule made of 3 atoms of oxygen | Ozone |
| Arrangement of the chemical elements in order of their atomic numbers | Periodic table |
| States in which matter can exist, as a solid, liquid, or gas (matter undergoes a phase change when a solid changes to a liquid by melting or a gas changes to a liquid by condensation) | Phases of matter |
| Class of compounds in which a hydroxyl group is bonded to an aromatic carbon | Phenol |
| Change in the form of a substance without its producing or becoming a new substance | Physical change (change of state) |
| Distortion of the electron cloud of an anion by a small, highly charged cation | Polarization |
| Process of joining together of molecules so that compounds with chains of very large molecular size are produced | Polymerization |
| Solid material formed from a chemical reaction in a solution? | Precipitate |
| Substance used to detect another substance by the chemical reaction it causes | Reagent |
| Process of extracting the free or elemental metal from its metal sulfide by heating an ore in the presence of air | Roasting |
| Corrosion, or the slow union of oxygen with iron | Rusting |
| 5-step process consisting of identifying the problem, doing research, forming a hypothesis, testing the hypothesis, and coming to a conclusion | Scientific method |
| Phase of matter having a definite shape and taking up a definite amount of space | Solid |
| Substance dissolved in a fluid to make a solution | Solute |
| Any substance, such as alcohol, that dissolves other substances | Solvent |
| Property of a substance defined as the ratio of the weight of any volume of the substance to the weight of an equal volume of a standard substance | Specific gravity |
| One of two or more isomeric compounds that have the same molecular structure and differ only in the arrangement of the atoms in space—also known as optical isomers | Stereoisomers |
| Study of the numerical relationships involved in chemical formulas and chemical equations | Stoichiometry |
| Process of changing, or being changed, from a solid to a gas | Sublimation |
| Yellow, nonmetallic element identified by the odor given off as when cabbage and turnips are cooked | Sulfur |
| 2-word term for the force that causes a liquid to act as if a thin, elastic film covers its surface or that allows a needle to float on the surface of water without sinking | Surface tension |
| Wetting agent, such as soap, which is added to a polar molecule, such as water, to help attract nonpolar materials such as oil and grease | Surfactant |
| Radioactive isotopes used in chemistry and biochemistry to study molecular structures and to follow the reaction mechanism of chemical reactions | Tracers |
| Instrument used to study colloidal particles | Ultramicroscope |
| Hydrocarbon or organic compound that contains at least one double or one triple carbon- carbon bond | Unsaturated |
| Water in the gaseous state, especially when diffused in the air and below the boiling point | Water vapor |