| Term |
Description |
| Achenes |
A dry non-fleshy fruit containing a seed; the coat of this fruit is somewhat hard. |
| Acid |
It is a substance which releases hydrogen ions in water and has a pH less than 7, e.g. hydrochloric acid in the human stomach. |
| Adolescence |
It is the period in the human life cycle between puberty and maturity. |
| Additive |
In food technology, any natural or artificial chemical added to prolong the shelf life of processed foods (salt or nitrates), alter the color or flavor of food, or minerals). |
| Anaerobe |
It is an organisation which requires oxygen to survive. |
| Agar |
It is a jelly obtained from seaweeds which is used as a medium for culturing bacteria. |
| Algae |
A large group of primitive plants, mostly aquatic and capable of photosynthesis. |
| Anatomy |
It is the study of the structure of the body and its components parts, especially the human body, as distinguished form physiology, which is the study of bodily functions. |
| Antibiotic |
It is a substance, synthesizes by micro organism, which damages or kills other micro organism. |
| Anther |
In a flower, the upper part of a stamen containing pollen grains. |
| Aquatic |
It means living in water. All life originated in the early oceans. |
| Asexual reproduction |
It is reproduction in which new organisms are formed a single parent without gamete production. |
| Autogamy |
It means self fertilization. |
| Autoclave |
It is a pressure cooker used for the sterilization of materials. |
| Auxins |
These are plant hormones which control many aspects of plant growth. |
| Awn |
This refers to a needle-like bristle at the tip of a floral scale in grasses, sedges, and other plants. |
| Baermann funnel |
It is an apparatus used to isolate organisms living in soil water, e.g. algae protozoa. |
| Balanced diet |
It is the diet that includes carbohydrated, protein, fat, vitamins, water, minerals and roughage. |
| Benthos |
These are the flora and fauna of the bottom of oceans and lakes. |
| Beriberi |
It is inflammation of the nerve endings, mostly occurring in the tropics and resulting from a deficiency of vitamin B (thiamine). |
| Biology |
It is the study of living things. There are many specializations including cytology (the study of cells), zoology (the study of animals), and ecology (the study of the environment). |
| Biotechnology |
It is the industrial use of living organisms to manufacture food, drugs or other products. |
| Biofuel |
It is a kind of fuel which is made from natural materials or waste. |
| Biomass |
It is the total weight of all the organisms in a particular habitat. |
| Biosphere |
It is the entire zone of air, land and water at the surface of the earth that is occupied by living things. |
| Bulb |
It is an organ of storages and vegetative reproduction. |
| Caffeine |
It is a mildly addictive alkaloid found in a number of plants, such as tea, coffee and cola. |
| Capillary action |
It is the spontaneous movement of liquids up or down narrow tubes such as plant xylem vessels or the spaces existing between soil particles. |
| Canines |
These are sharp pointed tearing teeth near the front of the mouth used for killing prey and ripping of pieces of food. |
| Cannabis |
It is the source of a fibre and drugs like hashish and marijuana. Also called the Indian hemp or bhang plant. |
| Cartilage |
It is a flexible bluish-white connective tissue made up of the protein collagen. |
| Casein |
It is the main protein of milk, from which it can be separated by the action of acid, the enzyme rennin, or bacteria (souring); It is also the main component of cheese |
| Carpel |
It is the female reproductive organ of a flower (megas-poprophyII) bearing the ovules which mature into seeds after fertilization. |
| Cell |
It is the smallest functional and structural unit of all living organisms. |
| Cereal |
It is the grass grown for its edible starch seeds. The term cereal refers primarily to barley and wheat, but may also refer to oats, maize, rye, millet and rice. |
| Chlorophyll |
It is the green coloured pigment university found in plants, responsible for capturing the energy for photosynthesis. |
| Clavicle |
It is the collar bone, in humans, it is vulnerable to fracture. |
| Cornea |
It is the transparent front section of the eye. The cornea is curved and behaves as a fixed lens, so that light entering the eye is partly focused before it reaches the lends. |
| Corolla |
It is a collective name for the petals of a flower. |
| Death rate |
It is the number of deaths, measured in the human population as the number of deaths in one year per 1000 of population. |
| Deciduous |
These are trees and shrubs that shed their leaves before the onset of winter or a dry season. |
| Defoliant |
It is a chemical sprayed on plants that causes leaves to fall of prematurely. |
| Desertification |
It is the natural or man made conversation of arable or forest land into barren deserts. |
| Down’s syndrome |
It is a human abnormality caused by a mutation in which the ovum has an extra chromosome. |
| Ecology |
It is the study of structure and function of nature. |
| Ectotherm |
It is a cold-blooded animal, such as a lizard, that relies on external warmth to raise its body temperature so that it can become active. |
| Egestion |
It is the removal of undigested food or faeces from the gut. |
| Enzyme |
It is a biological catalyst produced in cells and capable of speeding up the chemical reactions necessary for life by converting one molecule (substrate) into another. |
| Epidermis |
It is the outermost layers of cells on an organism’s body. |
| Faeces |
These are remains of food and other debris passed out of the digestive tract of animals. |
| Fallopian |
It is a tube or oviduct in mammals one of the two tubes that carry ova (eggs) from the ovary to the uterus. |
| Fibrin |
It is an insoluble blood protein used by the body to stop bleeding. |
| Fossil |
These are remains or traces of animal and plant life of the past found embedded in rock. |
| Fossil fuel |
It is the fuel such as coal, oil and natural gas. These are remains of organism embedded in the surface of the earth. |
| Fungi |
These are primitive members of the plant family. |
| Fungus |
It is a kind of living thing, a simple plant which cannot make its own food. |
| Grafting |
It is the process of uniting parts of two plants to form a single plant. |
| Habitat |
It is the locality or external environment in which a plant or animal lives. |
| Haploid |
It is an organism or structure having a single set of unpaired chromosomes. |
| Herbarium |
It is an organized collection of plant specimens for identification and reference purposes. |
| Hermaphrodite |
It is an organism having both male and female reproductive organs in the same individual. |
| Horticulture |
It is a branch of agriculture dealing with garden crops, generally fruits, vegetables and ornamentals. |
| Iris |
It is the structure in the vertebrate eye which controls the size of the pupil and hence the amount of light entering the eye. |
| Metabolism |
It describes all the change that happens inside living things. |
| Ossicles |
These are the three tiny linked bones in the mammalian middle ear. |
| Ovule |
It is a somewhat oval body attached to the ovary wall in a flower which matures into a seed after fertilization. |
| Parasitism |
It is a biological association between organisms in which one, the parasite, benefits at the expense of the other, the host. |
| Palate |
It is in mammals, the ceiling of the mouth. |
| Predator |
It is an animal that feeds on other animals which are called the prey. |
| Radiocarbon dating |
It is the method of finding out the age of fossils by determining the amount of radiocarbon remaining in them. |
| Retina |
It is light-sensitive tissue lining the interior of the vertebrate eye, and consisting of two types of cells. |
| Rhizome |
It is an organ of vegetative reproduction in flowering plants consisting of a horizontal underground stem growing from a parent plant. |
| Root |
It is part of a flowering plant that normally grows down into the soil. |
| Savannah |
It is a grassland with scattered trees. |
| Saprophyte |
It is an organism that feeds on dead and decaying plants and animals, causing decomposition. |
| Short sight |
It is Myopia. |
| Transplantation |
It is the relocation of seedlings from nursery beds to the actual site of plantation. |
| Tropism |
It is a plant growth movement in response to a stimulus, for example, light. |
| Tuber |
It is an organ of vegetative reproduction in flowering plants. |
