MCAT Glossary — Key Terms & Definitions
- Conjugate base
- Diffraction
- Mendelian ratios
- Stratification
- Type I vs Type II error
- Base
- Doppler effect
- Equilibrium
- Innate vs adaptive immunity
- p-value
- Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR)
- Simple harmonic motion
- Synaptic transmission
- Thermodynamics first/second laws
- Capacitors
- Cell cycle checkpoints
- Half-life
- Independent variable
- Mole
- Nephron functional units
- Substrate-level phosphorylation
- Vapor pressure
- Antibody classes
- Correlation coefficient
- Electron transport chain (ETC)
- Glycolysis
- Meiosis
- Negative reinforcement
- Noncompetitive inhibition
- Reduction
- Socialization
- Stress response (GAS)
- Theoretical perspectives
- Competitive inhibition
- Denaturation
- Endocrine hormones (key)
- Lineweaver-Burk plot
- Memory systems
- Passage-based reasoning
- Codon
- Conservation of momentum
- Discrete vs passage questions
- Endocytosis types
- Galvanic cell EMF
- Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium
- Hemoglobin O₂ dissociation curve
- Isomer
- Kinetics
- Krebs cycle (TCA)
- Levels of processing
- Power
- R/S configuration
- Atomic number
- Autonomic nervous system
- Buffer
- Confidence interval
- Equilibrium constant
- Newton's laws
- Peptide bond
- Standard deviation
- Transcription
- Acid
- Amphipathic
- ATP
- Aufbau / Hund / Pauli
- Catalyst
- Cell cycle phases
- Cultural relativism vs ethnocentrism
- Electronegativity
- Erikson's psychosocial stages
- Fischer projection
- Maslow's hierarchy
- Michaelis-Menten kinetics
- Operant conditioning
- Quantum numbers
- Sleep stages
- Social institutions
- Activation energy
- Big Five personality (OCEAN)
- E1 vs E2
- Entropy
- Enzyme
- Fundamental attribution error
- IR spectroscopy
- Linkage
- Nernst equation
- Protein structure levels
- Random assignment
- Reliability
- Renin-angiotensin-aldosterone (RAAS)
- Social mobility
- Demographic transition
- DNA replication enzymes
- Double-blind RCT
- Folkways, mores, taboos
- Ksp / solubility product
- Mitosis
- NMR (¹H) basics
- pH
- SN1 vs SN2
- T cell types
- Thin lens equation
- Aldol condensation
- Amino acid (essential 9)
- Central tendency
- Effect size
- Henderson-Hasselbalch equation
- Homeostasis
- Le Châtelier's principle
- Normal distribution
- RC time constant
- Trophic level
- Validity
- Absolute threshold
- Cross-sectional vs longitudinal
- Heuristic
- Markovnikov vs anti-Markovnikov
- Resting potential
- Translation
- Allele
- Buoyant force
- Chirality
- Cognitive dissonance
- Confounding variable
- Enthalpy
- Hess's law
- Ohm's law
- Work-energy theorem
- Active vs passive transport
- Gluconeogenesis
- Oxidation
- Bandura social learning
- Bernoulli's equation
- Classical conditioning
- Cytoskeleton components
- Frank-Starling law
- Health disparities
- ICE table
- Ideal gas law
- Acid-base titration curve
- Action potential
- Beta-oxidation
- Cardiac cycle
- CARS skills
- Chemiosmosis
- Gibbs free energy
- Hypothesis
- Kohlberg's moral stages
- Piaget's stages
- Selection bias
- Snell's law
- Social stratification systems
- Z-score