Science & Medicine — Set 1: Meanings flashcards
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The 75 most common of the 150 Science & Medicine words, from vaccine and genome to black hole and half-life: pronunciation, a plain definition and three example sentences, the most common use first.
Learn deck · part of Science & Medicine · written against: 150 words of health and science news; not medical advice. Updated 2026-10-10.
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acute (adj.) · uh-KYOOT(of an illness) brief and quick to take hold; severe and sharp, as pain or need; keenly sensitiveBody & Health
A stomach bug is usually acute, passing within a few days.
The pain became acute whenever Imani put weight on her knee.
Eagles have acute eyesight, spotting rabbits from high above.
Watch out: in medicine, acute means sudden and short, not necessarily severe; the opposite is chronic. -
anatomy (n.) · uh-NAT-uh-meewhich parts a body has and where they sit, whether it belongs to a person, an animal or a plant; the science that studies body structureBody & Health
Medical students spend months learning human anatomy, bone by bone.
A barn owl's ear anatomy lets it find mice in total darkness.
Kofi is taking anatomy this term, with a plastic skeleton named Mr. Bones.
Root: Greek anatemnein, "to dissect," gave anatomē, which passed into Late Latin as anatomia, "dissection." -
carrier (n.) · KAIR-ee-ursomeone, or some animal, holding a germ or gene that they can hand on to others while it shows no sign in themDisease & Infection
A healthy carrier can spread the bacteria without ever feeling sick.
Both parents were carriers of the gene, though neither had the condition.
Some bats are carriers of viruses that rarely make the bats themselves ill.
Watch out: in everyday use a carrier is often an airline, trucking firm or similar business, or a phone network. -
bacteria (n.) · bak-TEER-ee-uhtiny single-celled living things with no nucleus, found almost everywhere; a few cause disease, but most are harmlessDisease & Infection
Most bacteria on our skin are harmless, and some even protect us.
Bacteria in yogurt turn milk sour and thick.
Raw chicken can carry bacteria, so cooks keep a separate cutting board for it.
Watch out: bacteria is plural; one is a bacterium. -
side effect (n.) · SIGHD ih-FEKTan unwanted change that a medicine or treatment brings on top of the one it is given for; any unintended resultDiagnosis & Treatment
Drowsiness is a common side effect of some allergy medicines.
The pharmacist explained the possible side effects of Ava's new prescription.
An unexpected side effect of the dam was a boom in birdwatching. -
case study (n.) · KAYS STUH-deeresearch that draws wider lessons from a close look at one person, group, event or placeResearch & Technology
Doctors wrote a case study about a patient who hiccuped for months.
Psychologists still cite the famous case study of Phineas Gage.
Planners see the riverside town as a case study in flood-proof design. -
species (n.) · SPEE-sheezone kind of living thing, made up of close relatives that can usually breed together and have young that can also breedGenes & Life
Scientists describe thousands of new insect species every year.
Lions and tigers are different species, though both are big cats.
Each species of finch on the islands has a beak suited to its food.
Watch out: species is both singular and plural: one species, two species. -
half-life (n.) · HAF-lighfhow long until half of a radioactive sample has decayed, or until the body has cleared half of a drugMatter & Energy
Carbon-14's half-life, about 5,730 years, helps date ancient bones.
For adults, caffeine's half-life is around five hours.
After one half-life, half the radioactive atoms are left; after two, a quarter. -
climate change (n.) · KLIGH-mit CHAYNJa change in Earth's temperatures, rain and wind lasting decades or more, now mainly from burning coal, oil and gasEarth & Climate
Climate change is making heat waves longer and more frequent.
Shifts in Earth's orbit triggered the climate change that ended the last ice age.
Farmers are planting heat-tolerant crops to adapt to climate change. -
light-year (n.) · LIGHT-yeerastronomers' yardstick for distances in space, about 6 trillion miles, or one year's worth of travel for lightSpace
Proxima Centauri, 4.2 light-years from us, is the closest star after the sun.
Our galaxy is about 100,000 light-years across.
The Andromeda Galaxy lies about 2.5 million light-years from Earth.
Watch out: in science, a light-year measures distance, not time.
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Review status: Second-reader reviewed, with corrections applied.
Checked against:
- Senses, parts of speech and pronunciations checked against Merriam-Webster.com, the American Heritage Dictionary and the Oxford Learner's, Longman and Cambridge learner's dictionaries; all definitions, notes and example sentences are original.
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