Characteristics of Living Things and Cell Structures

These flashcards cover the vocabulary related to the characteristics of living things and the structures of cells.

Characteristic

Quality or property that defines or classifies something.

Cell

Basic unit of structure and function in living things.

Response

Reaction to a change.

Homeostasis

Process of keeping conditions inside a body constant, no matter the conditions outside the body.

Ingestion

Process of taking in food.

Digestion

Process of breaking down food so that it can be used by living things.

Excretion

Process of getting rid of wastes.

Transport

Process of moving nutrients and wastes in living things.

Stimulus

Change that causes a response.

Behavior

Way in which a living thing responds to stimuli.

Spontaneous generation

Idea that living things come from nonliving things.

Reproduction

Process by which living things produce new organisms like themselves.

Offspring

A new organism that is produced from living things.

Specialization

Studying or working on only one part of a subject.

Organism

Any living thing.

Biotic

Living organisms.

Abiotic

Non-living things.

Elements

Smallest building blocks of matter that cannot be broken down.

Cell membrane

Thin structure that surrounds the cell.

Cytoplasm

Gel-like substance inside the cell where most of the cell's activities take place.

Nucleus

Control center of the cell.

Nuclear membrane

Thin structure that surrounds and protects the nucleus.

Organelle

Small structure in the cytoplasm that does a special job.

Mitochondria

Structure that releases energy for a cell.

Endoplasmic reticulum

A small network of tubes inside a cell that substances move along.

Ribosome

Small round structure that makes proteins.

Golgi body (apparatus)

Organelle that packages up and sends materials to other places in the cell.

Vacuole

Space in the cytoplasm that stores the different substances a cell needs to survive.

Lysosome

Small, round structure that breaks down nutrient molecules and old cell parts.

Cell wall

Thick outer layer that surrounds the cell membranes of plant and some simple organisms.

Cellulose

Carbohydrate, made up of many sugar molecules, that forms most of the cell wall of plant cells.

Chloroplast

Organelle in a plant that contains chlorophyll.

Chlorophyll

Green material in chloroplasts that is needed by plants to make their own food.