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Science vocabulary

Learn selected terms from physical science, biology, and the water cycle. The examples connect each term to an observable idea.

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Science vocabulary

Word	Meaning	In a sentence	Save
ecosystemnoun	The living things in an area together with their nonliving surroundings and the ways they interact.	The pond ecosystem includes insects, plants, water, and sediment.
energynoun	The capacity to do work or bring about change.	Sunlight provides energy that the plant uses to make sugars.
evaporationnoun	The change of a liquid into gas at the liquid's surface.	Evaporation made the shallow puddle smaller during the afternoon.
gravitynoun	The attraction between objects that have mass.	Gravity pulls the falling apple toward Earth.
habitatnoun	The place and conditions in which an organism normally lives.	The hedgerow provides habitat for nesting birds.
matternoun	Anything that has mass and takes up space.	Air is matter even though we cannot usually see it.
organismnoun	An individual living thing.	A single bacterium is an organism.
photosynthesisnoun	The process in which plants, algae, and some bacteria use light energy to make sugars.	The leaves use light for photosynthesis.
precipitationnoun	Water that falls from clouds as rain, snow, hail, or another liquid or frozen form.	Most of the winter precipitation here falls as snow.
condensationnoun	The change of a gas into a liquid.	Condensation formed droplets on the cold window.
atomnoun	The smallest unit of an element that keeps that element's chemical identity.	A water molecule contains two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom.
cellnoun	The basic structural and functional unit of living organisms.	We examined an onion cell under the microscope.
experimentnoun	A planned test used to investigate a question or test an explanation.	Our experiment compared how quickly sugar dissolved in warm and cool water.
forcenoun	A push or pull that can change an object's motion or shape.	The force from her hand set the toy car moving.
solutionnoun	A uniform mixture in which one or more substances are dissolved in another.	Stirring the salt into water produced a clear solution.
hypothesisnoun	A proposed explanation that can be tested using observations or an investigation.	Our hypothesis was that the seedlings would grow taller with more light.
evidencenoun	Information or observations that help show whether a claim is true.	The footprints provided evidence that an animal had crossed the garden.