Virtuous English AcademyScientific Inquiry — B2 English Vocabulary
This B2 vocabulary list gathers 50 upper-intermediate English words about scientific inquiry — particles, cells and physical laws. Every word comes with a simple definition, its British-English pronunciation and a natural example sentence, so you learn each one in real context. When you are ready, open the flashcards to practise and remember them for good.
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Using scientific inquiry words in English
Hard-science vocabulary is dominated by uncountable nouns for quantities and by Latin plurals for structures. Mass, velocity, density and radiation behave as measurements rather than objects, while nucleus and bacterium keep their Latin endings. This page also separates element, compound and mixture, three words that describe genuinely different things in chemistry.
What to watch out for
Nucleus gives nuclei; bacterium gives bacteria
Latin nouns in -us often take -i: nucleus and nuclei, stimulus and stimuli, radius and radii. Nouns in -um take -a: bacterium and bacteria, datum and data, medium and media. The commonest error is treating the plural as a singular — a bacteria and this criteria are both wrong.
Element, compound, mixture
An element cannot be broken down chemically — oxygen, iron, carbon. A compound is two or more elements chemically bonded in fixed proportions, like water. A mixture is substances combined without bonding, so they can be separated physically. These are technical terms with exact meanings, and using them loosely is the scientific equivalent of a grammar error.
Quantities are uncountable and take units
Mass, velocity, momentum, density, friction, radiation and voltage all name measurable properties rather than objects, so they take no article in general statements: Density increases with pressure. To count, add a unit or a specifier: a density of 2.7 grams per cubic centimetre. Note that mass and weight are not synonyms in physics: mass is constant, weight depends on gravity.
Words learners mix up
Scientific writing is unforgiving about three things: separating what you did from what you concluded, keeping the physics words apart when everyday English blurs them, and noticing which terms have escaped into ordinary use with a looser meaning.
What you did, and what came out of it
| Word | What it actually means | In a sentence |
|---|---|---|
| apparatus | The equipment used. Traditionally uncountable — the apparatus was assembled — though apparatuses is now accepted. | The apparatus is shown in Figure 2. |
| specimen | A single sample taken for examination. Countable, and it names the physical thing, not the data. | Each specimen was frozen within an hour. |
| observation | What was recorded. Countable when it means one recorded instance, uncountable when it means the activity. | Two hundred observations were made over six nights. |
| finding | What the observations were taken to mean. This is the interpreted result, and it is almost always plural. | The findings support the second hypothesis. |
| replicate | To repeat a study independently and get the same result. The verb that decides whether a finding survives. | Three teams failed to replicate the effect. |
The distinction that markers reward is observation against finding: an observation is what the instrument recorded and a finding is your claim about it, so a Results section reports observations and a Discussion argues findings. Confusing them is how a paper ends up asserting more than it measured.
The motion words are not interchangeable
| Word | What it actually means | In a sentence |
|---|---|---|
| mass | How much matter an object contains. Constant everywhere, measured in kilograms. | The mass of the sample was 4.2 kg. |
| velocity | Speed with a direction. That is the whole difference from speed, and it is why velocity can be negative. | Its velocity was 30 m/s due north. |
| momentum | Mass multiplied by velocity — how hard something is to stop. Uncountable in physics. | Momentum is conserved in the collision. |
| friction | The force resisting motion between surfaces in contact. Uncountable, and it converts motion into heat. | Friction slows the block to rest. |
| orbit | A curved path around a body under gravity. Noun and verb, and unlike the others it names a trajectory rather than a quantity. | The satellite orbits every ninety minutes. |
Everyday English treats speed, velocity and momentum as intensifiers of each other, and in physics they are three different quantities with different units. If you can say a lot of momentum and mean only "fast", you are using the everyday word, and in a science answer that reads as imprecision rather than style.
Four terms that escaped the laboratory
| Word | What it actually means | In a sentence |
|---|---|---|
| catalyst | A substance that speeds a reaction without being consumed by it. Figuratively, an event that triggers change. | The report was the catalyst for reform. |
| quantum | The smallest possible discrete amount of something. Note that a quantum is by definition tiny. | Energy is absorbed in quantum units. |
| spectrum | A continuous range between two extremes. Plural spectra in technical writing, spectrums in general use. | The full spectrum of visible light. |
| organism | Any individual living thing. Figuratively, anything treated as a living whole. | A single-celled organism. |
The figurative uses are legitimate and often good writing — but quantum leap is worth knowing about, because a quantum is the smallest change there can be, so the popular sense of an enormous jump reverses the physics. Nobody will mark you wrong for it; a scientific reader will notice.
Collocations that sound natural
Method sections are written in a narrow band of fixed phrases, and using them is much of what makes writing sound like science rather than a description of science.
observation
make an observationdirect observationunder observationobservations were recorded
You make observations, not do or take them. The passive observations were recorded is the standard method-section frame, because the identity of the observer is deliberately irrelevant.
equation
solve an equationderive an equationthe equation holdssubstitute into the equation
Equations are solved, derived and satisfied. Note the figurative frame part of the equation, meaning one factor in a complicated situation.
radiation
exposure to radiationemit radiationbackground radiationabsorb radiation
Uncountable, so no article in general statements. Sources emit it and materials absorb it; people receive exposure to it.
catalyst
act as a catalysta catalyst for changein the presence of a catalyst
The figurative frame is fixed as a catalyst for, never of. In the chemical sense the standard phrase is in the presence of, which quietly makes the point that the catalyst is not consumed.
principle
the underlying principlein principlethe principle ofapply the principle
Watch the homophone: principle is the rule, principal is the main one. In principle means in theory, and often signals that practice differs.
calibrate
calibrate the instrumentcalibrated againsta calibration curve
Instruments are calibrated against a known standard. The word has a common figurative use too — calibrate your expectations — which keeps the sense of adjusting to a reference point.
Formal, neutral or informal?
Scientific words carry either a precise technical value or a loose popular one, rarely both at once. Knowing which you are using is the difference between sounding informed and sounding as though you have read a headline.
- quantumTechnical · popularly reversedIn physics, the smallest indivisible unit of a quantity. Popular usage has made it a synonym for huge and mysterious, which is the opposite of what it means, so keep it technical in academic writing.
- matterTechnical · and a common nounIn science, physical substance with mass. The everyday senses — a subject under discussion, or the verb meaning to be important — are so frequent that the technical use needs its context: dark matter, states of matter.
- probeNeutral · three fields at onceAn instrument, a spacecraft, and a verb meaning to investigate. Journalism uses it for an inquiry because it is short enough for a headline, so in formal writing investigation is usually the better noun.
- synthesiseFormal · two sensesTo make a compound artificially, and to combine ideas into a whole. Academic writing uses the second constantly — synthesise the literature — and it is a stronger claim than summarise, because it means you produced something new.
- advancementFormal · and often the wrong wordProgress, especially in a career: opportunities for advancement. For progress in knowledge, most scientific writing prefers advance as a noun: a major advance in imaging.
- cosmicTechnical or hyperbolicStrictly, relating to the universe — cosmic rays, cosmic background radiation. Loosely, it means vast or mystical, and that second sense is informal enough to undercut a serious paragraph.
- microscopicTechnical · and exaggeratedProperly, too small to see without a microscope. Casually it means merely very small — a microscopic portion — which a science tutor will read as imprecise. Molecular and atomic are stricter still and should not be used for emphasis.
- experimentalNeutral · two meaningsRelating to experiments — experimental data — or not yet proven, as of a treatment. The second is the one that alarms readers, so in a medical context say which you mean.
Sentences to try
Four frames from a science textbook. Check every plural and every article.
- The nuclei of these atoms contain the same number of protons.
- Water is a compound, whereas air is a mixture.
- Friction converts kinetic energy into heat.
- These bacteria reproduce rapidly at higher temperatures.
Questions about scientific inquiry vocabulary
What is the plural of nucleus and bacterium?
Nuclei and bacteria. Latin nouns ending in -us typically take -i in scientific English — nucleus and nuclei, stimulus and stimuli, fungus and fungi — while those ending in -um take -a: bacterium and bacteria, datum and data. The frequent error is using the plural as a singular: a bacteria should be a bacterium. Note that some of these have drifted in general usage, and data in particular is now often treated as singular outside strict scientific writing.
What is the difference between an element, a compound and a mixture?
An element is a pure substance that cannot be broken down into simpler substances by chemical means — hydrogen, gold, carbon. A compound is formed when two or more elements bond chemically in a fixed ratio, producing a substance with new properties: water is a compound of hydrogen and oxygen. A mixture combines substances physically without bonding, so the components keep their own properties and can be separated again — air, sea water, and most everyday materials are mixtures.
Are "mass" and "weight" the same thing?
Not in physics. Mass is the amount of matter in an object and does not change wherever the object is; it is measured in kilograms. Weight is the force gravity exerts on that mass, so it changes with location — the same object weighs less on the Moon — and it is properly measured in newtons. Everyday English uses weight for both, which is why the distinction has to be learned rather than absorbed. Both words are uncountable in these senses.