Glossary
Chemist Terms & Vocabulary
15 essential chemist terms with plain-English definitions: the vocabulary you’ll hear in training and on day one.
Key chemist vocabulary
These 15 terms come up constantly in chemist training, on the job and in interviews. Knowing them helps you follow instructions, document accurately and sound prepared.
- Catalyst
- Speeds a reaction.
- Formulation
- Mixing ingredients into products.
- GC-MS
- Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry.
- HPLC
- High-performance liquid chromatography.
- Limit of detection
- Lowest detectable amount.
- Method validation
- Proving a test works.
- NMR
- Nuclear magnetic resonance.
- OOS
- Out of specification.
- Purity
- Freedom from contaminants.
- Reagent
- A reacting substance.
- SOP
- Standard operating procedure.
- Specificity
- Measuring only the target.
- Stability study
- Testing over time.
- Synthesis
- Making compounds.
- Yield
- Amount of product made.
Practice these terms
Test yourself with the free Chemist practice test: it includes vocabulary questions built from this list. For a complete course, see Chemist training.
Browse terms from every career in our career glossary.