| Scientific Term | General Meaning/Perception | Better Choice |
| abstract | vague, intangible | summary |
| accelerate | speed up | speed up or slow down, a change in speed or direction |
| accommodation | place to sleep/change to make someone more comfortable | focusing of the eye's lens |
| aerosol | spray can | tiny airborne particle |
| alcohol | beer | preservative, rubbing alcohol, drinking alcohol, etc. |
| amplification | something that makes music louder | increasing |
| anomaly | abnormal occurence | change from long-term average |
| anti-biotic | soap, hand sanitizer, kitchen cleaner | sterilizer, agent to kill microbes |
| assay | judge, essay | analyze, a method used to test |
| attraction | liking someone a lot | being pulled towards each other |
| bacteria | dirty, unhealthy, infectious agents | microscopic organisms, microbes |
| basic | simple, easy | [of research] not applied, fundamental, alkaline |
| bias | distortion, political move, prejudice | offset of an observation |
| more... | ||
It is naive to think language just works. Depending on the audience a word, a sentence or a paragraph may have multiple and even different meanings. Everybody has his/her own personal history and interpretation is a matter of experience.
The highly specific language used in scientific publication is no exception. In fact in some subject areas (reads quantum mechanics) you have no chance to understand a bit, although your mother’s language was used.
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