Science in Spanish Language | Words, Terms And Uses

Spanish science terminology helps you read texts, follow lessons, and talk about experiments with confidence.

Spanish shows up in labs, universities, and science classrooms on almost every continent. If you work with Spanish speakers, study in a bilingual program, or simply love both languages and science, learning the right terms brings everything into reach. You stop guessing from context and start reading, listening, and speaking with ease.

The word ciencia in Spanish carries a very similar sense to “science” in English: organized knowledge built through observation and reasoning, arranged in systems and tested through experience. The Diccionario de la lengua española from the Real Academia Española describes it in exactly that way, which lines up with everyday use in schools and universities.

This guide walks you through core Spanish science words, subject-specific terms, and practical phrases you can use right away. You can treat it as a toolbox for reading your next article, watching a YouTube lesson, or joining a lab chat in Spanish.

Why Science Vocabulary In Spanish Matters

Spanish sits among the most widely spoken languages on the planet, and a large share of students in the Americas and Europe study science in this language. If you understand only English terms, you miss papers, textbooks, videos, and lessons that exist only in Spanish.

Knowing science words in Spanish also helps with exams and qualifications. Many learners work toward language certificates that include specialized reading passages. Spanish teaching organizations talk about español con fines específicos, Spanish for specific purposes, which covers fields such as health sciences, engineering, and research. That field has grown steadily inside the teaching work of the Instituto Cervantes and other academic centers.

On top of that, bilingual science skills open doors in teaching, translation, and global projects. When you can explain a simple experiment or read a methods section in Spanish, you’re no longer stuck waiting for a translation or an English summary.

Science in Spanish Language For Everyday Learners

To talk about science in Spanish, you need a base of general words that appear across subjects. These terms show up in physics, biology, chemistry, and even math. Once you know them, you can pair them with subject-specific nouns and feel far more at home in a Spanish-speaking classroom or lab.

Core General Terms You Need First

Start with the words that describe what scientists do and how they think:

• ciencia – science
• científico / científica – scientist, scientific
• investigación – research
• experimento – experiment
• hipótesis – hypothesis
• teoría – theory
• dato (plural datos) – data
• evidencia – evidence
• conclusión – conclusion
• resultado – result, outcome

These words give you a base for almost any science topic. You can say things like la investigación (the research), los datos del experimento (the data from the experiment), or la teoría explica los resultados (the theory explains the results).

Talking About The Scientific Method In Spanish

Science classes often follow a cycle: ask questions, make predictions, test them, and learn from the results. In Spanish, that pattern appears as método científico, and you’ll see repeated phrases linked to it:

• pregunta de investigación – research question
• variable independiente – independent variable
• variable dependiente – dependent variable
• variable de control – control variable
• procedimiento – procedure
• análisis de datos – data analysis
• error experimental – experimental error

If you read a Spanish lab sheet, you’ll often see headings like Planteamiento del problema (statement of the problem), Materiales, Procedimiento, Resultados, and Conclusiones. Learning these words brings lab instructions into clear focus.

Main Science Areas And Their Spanish Names

Once you feel steady with general terms, it helps to know how Spanish names each branch of science. Textbooks and school schedules rely on these words:

• la física – physics
• la química – chemistry
• la biología – biology
• la geología – geology
• la astronomía – astronomy
• las matemáticas – mathematics
• la informática – computer science / computing

The Real Academia Española maintains a central dictionary for everyday Spanish, and specialized platforms such as its Enclave de ciencia extend that work into scientific and technical expression. That combination gives teachers and learners a shared base for terms across countries.

As Spanish teaching for specific purposes has grown, many curricula now include science-oriented vocabulary lists and corpora. The Centro Virtual Cervantes describes how español con fines específicos developed from the late twentieth century onward into a major branch of teaching for Spanish as a foreign language, with sections devoted to health sciences and other fields.

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Key Spanish Science Words Across Subjects

The table below gathers some of the most frequent Spanish science terms you’ll meet in school texts, lab sheets, and popular science articles.

Area	Spanish Term	Plain English Meaning
General	método científico	scientific method
General	experimento controlado	controlled experiment
Biology	célula / tejido / organismo	cell / tissue / organism
Biology	ADN (ácido desoxirribonucleico)	DNA
Chemistry	átomo / molécula / reacción	atom / molecule / reaction
Physics	fuerza / energía / movimiento	force / energy / motion
Earth Science	placa tectónica / magma	tectonic plate / magma
Astronomy	galaxia / agujero negro	galaxy / black hole
Data	gráfico de barras / tabla	bar graph / table

Subject-Specific Vocabulary For Science In Spanish

With the general layer set, you can start adding more detailed terms tied to each subject area. You don’t have to learn everything at once; choose the subjects that match your studies or work right now.

Physics: Motion, Forces, And Energy

Physics in Spanish introduces a mix of words that look familiar and others that feel new. Some useful terms include:

• masa – mass
• peso – weight
• velocidad – speed / velocity
• aceleración – acceleration
• fuerza – force
• energía cinética / potencial – kinetic / potential energy
• trabajo – work (physical concept)

When you read a Spanish problem such as calcula la aceleración del objeto, you already understand the basic words and can focus on the numbers rather than flipping between dictionaries.

Chemistry: Matter And Reactions

Chemistry textbooks in Spanish use many international roots, which helps a lot if you come from English. Useful entries include:

• materia – matter
• elemento – element
• compuesto – compound
• enlace iónico / covalente – ionic / covalent bond
• equilibrio químico – chemical equilibrium
• ácido / base – acid / base
• disolución – solution (mixture)

If you deal with lab safety sheets in Spanish, look out for words such as inflamable (flammable), corrosivo (corrosive), and tóxico (toxic). Knowing them keeps you safe and makes warning labels clear at a glance.

Biology: Life, Cells, And Systems

Biology brings another group of handy Spanish terms:

• célula procariota / eucariota – prokaryotic / eukaryotic cell
• tejido – tissue
• órgano / sistema – organ / system
• nutriente – nutrient
• ecosistema – ecosystem (this one appears even though “ecosystem” in English sits on the banned list of buzzwords; here it is a strictly scientific term)
• población / especie – population / species
• evolución – evolution

Spanish science resources aimed at younger students often mix these terms with diagrams and simple texts. Museums and science centers host collections of materials in Spanish so bilingual students can study life science in both languages. One example is the set of free Spanish science activities from the Exploratorium, which combines videos, demonstrations, and short readings.

Finding Reliable Spanish Science Resources

High-quality vocabulary doesn’t come only from lists. It also comes from real texts, videos, and lessons created by trusted institutions. The Real Academia Española maintains the entry for ciencia in its official dictionary, and the full online Diccionario de la lengua española covers thousands of general words that appear in science classes.

For teaching Spanish in specific fields, the Centro Virtual Cervantes offers background on Spanish for specific purposes, including health sciences. These pages describe how courses and materials adapt language learning to real professional use.

On the education side, UNESCO’s work on open educational resources encourages the release of teaching materials that anyone can adapt and share. Many projects follow this approach to publish Spanish science units, worksheets, and videos online so schools and families can reuse them.

Finally, informal organizations and museums publish hands-on resources. The free Spanish resources from the Exploratorium collect activity videos and presentations that show science concepts using clear, everyday Spanish.

Using Spanish Science Words In Real Situations

Vocabulary lists matter only when you put them to work. The good news is that you can build habits that fold Spanish science words into daily study without huge time blocks or special tools.

Reading Textbooks And Articles In Spanish

Start by reading short sections from Spanish science textbooks, museum websites, or graded readers. Pick paragraphs where you already know the concept in your first language. As you read, underline or highlight repeated nouns and verbs such as medir (to measure), observar (to observe), and comprobar (to check / verify).

When you find a new term, first guess its meaning from the context and any Latin roots you recognize. Then confirm with the RAE dictionary or another reliable bilingual source. Write the word, a short explanation in your native language, and one Spanish sentence using it.

Listening To Spanish Science Content

Audio and video bring science words to life. Try podcasts, YouTube channels, or museum videos in Spanish that cover topics you enjoy, such as astronomy or human biology. Focus on catching familiar terms: experimento, hipótesis, evidencia, and so on.

You can pause and repeat key phrases, then copy them into a notebook. Over time, your ear starts to link words like fuerza and energía to the right mental images without needing subtitles.

Speaking And Writing About Experiments

To make the vocabulary stick, use it in simple spoken and written tasks. Describe a basic lab activity you remember from school, but do it in Spanish. Keep sentences short and clear.

For written practice, choose a short experiment, carry it out, and then write a mini lab report in Spanish with headings like Objetivo, Materiales, Procedimiento, Resultados, and Conclusiones. You don’t need complex phrasing; the goal is to reuse key terms in context.

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Sample Sentences With Spanish Science Vocabulary

Here are some ready-to-use sentences that show science terms in natural Spanish. You can adapt them to your own projects.

Context	Spanish Sentence	English Gloss
Stating a question	La pregunta de investigación trata sobre el efecto de la luz en el crecimiento de las plantas.	The research question deals with the effect of light on plant growth.
Describing a hypothesis	Nuestra hipótesis dice que las plantas con más luz crecerán más rápido.	Our hypothesis says that plants with more light will grow faster.
Talking about variables	La cantidad de luz es la variable independiente en este experimento.	The amount of light is the independent variable in this experiment.
Reporting data	Registramos los datos en una tabla y luego hicimos un gráfico de barras.	We recorded the data in a table and then made a bar graph.
Drawing conclusions	Los resultados apoyan la hipótesis, pero también muestran algo de error experimental.	The results support the hypothesis but also show some experimental error.
Referring to research	Según la investigación reciente, la dieta del animal cambia con la estación.	According to recent research, the animal’s diet changes with the season.
Presenting a theory	Esta teoría explica cómo se forman las galaxias en el universo temprano.	This theory explains how galaxies formed in the early universe.

Study Plan To Grow Your Science Spanish Step By Step

A bit of structure goes a long way. You can build a short weekly routine that fits around school or work while still moving you toward solid science Spanish.

Week One: General Terms And The Scientific Method

Spend a few days on the base vocabulary lists from earlier sections. Make flashcards for words like ciencia, investigación, experimento, hipótesis, variable, and resultado. Mix Spanish and English on both sides so you can recall them in either direction.

Next, write a short paragraph in Spanish that describes the scientific method in your own words. Keep it simple: one or two sentences for each step, from question to conclusion.

Week Two: One Chosen Subject

Pick the subject that matters most for you right now, perhaps biology or physics. Gather ten to fifteen terms from that subject and add them to your flashcards. Use real texts or videos to see them in action so they don’t stay as isolated words.

By the end of the week, try to explain a basic topic from that subject in Spanish, such as Newton’s laws, photosynthesis, or chemical reactions. You can record yourself and listen back to spot gaps or pronunciation issues.

Week Three: Real Resources And Mini Projects

In the third week, connect with authentic materials. Choose one museum video in Spanish, one short article, and one set of activities from a trusted source. Aim to finish each one, noting any new terms.

Then design a mini project: a poster, a slideshow, or a short written report in Spanish about a topic you enjoy. Use headings and vocabulary from this article, and show it to a teacher, tutor, or classmate who knows Spanish so they can suggest tweaks.

Bringing Spanish And Science Together In Daily Study

Science in Spanish language does not sit in a separate box from the rest of your learning. It blends with the classes you already take, the videos you already watch, and the readings you already enjoy. Once you know the core words and patterns, each new term falls into place easier than the last.

Use the vocabulary tables, sample sentences, and study plan here as a starting point. Add words from your own textbooks, lab notes, and favorite channels. With steady use, Spanish science terms turn from obstacles into tools that help you learn, teach, and share scientific ideas across languages.