inorganic

Imagine building with glass marbles instead of growing a plant. The marbles are inorganic because they are made of materials like silica, not from living matter. A plant, by contrast, is organic because it comes from life. In chemistry, "inorganic" usually refers to substances that do not have carbon-hydrogen bonds, although there are some exceptions. You will often hear the word when people talk about minerals, metals, water, or salt. Think of rocks, glass, and metals rather than plants or animals.

The word inorganic usually describes something that is not living and does not come from living processes. It is often used as the opposite of "organic." In everyday language, that contrast is simple: fresh vegetables are organic, while a glass jar or a steel pan is inorganic.

In chemistry, inorganic has a more specific meaning. It usually refers to substances that are not classed as organic compounds, and many of them do not contain carbon-hydrogen bonds. Salts, metals, minerals, and many simple compounds fall into this group. For example, sodium chloride, or table salt, is a classic inorganic compound.

You may hear the word in many fields. Geologists study inorganic matter such as rocks and minerals. Environmental scientists talk about inorganic pollutants such as lead or mercury in water. In art, a sculptor working with stone, clay, or bronze is working with inorganic materials.

The line is not always perfectly simple in science, so context matters. Some compounds contain carbon but are still considered inorganic, and scientists classify them by chemical structure rather than by a simple "living" versus "nonliving" rule. Still, for most everyday uses, if something is like a rock, a metal, a mineral, or a salt, calling it inorganic will make sense.