Cat science vocabulary list
Plain language definitions of the science words students meet when they learn about cats. Print it as a study sheet or cut it up for a word wall. For vet and breed terms such as HCM, PKD and AAFCO, see our full cat glossary.
Grades 3 to 5
- Adaptation
- A body part or behavior that helps a living thing survive where it lives. A cat's whiskers are an adaptation for feeling its way in the dark.
- Carnivore
- An animal that eats other animals. Cats are carnivores.
- Function
- The job a body part does.
- Inherited trait
- A trait passed from parents to their young, such as fur color.
- Kitten
- A young cat.
- Litter
- A group of kittens born to the same mother at the same time.
- Offspring
- The young of a living thing. Kittens are a cat's offspring.
- Predator
- An animal that hunts other animals for food.
- Prey
- An animal that is hunted for food.
- Sense
- A way an animal takes in information: sight, hearing, smell, taste or touch.
- Structure
- A part of a living thing, inside or outside its body, such as ears, whiskers or a heart.
- Trait
- A feature of a living thing, such as fur length or ear shape.
- Variation
- Differences between living things of the same kind, like kittens in one litter with different colored fur.
- Vibrissae
- The scientific name for whiskers: thick, sensitive hairs that feel touch and air movement.
Grades 6 to 12
- Artificial selection
- When people choose which animals breed so that a wanted trait becomes more common. Cat breeds are a result of artificial selection.
- Breed
- A group of cats bred by people to share a set of traits, such as the Maine Coon or Siamese. See our breed guide.
- Domestication
- The long process by which a wild species comes to live with and depend on people. House cats were domesticated from the Near Eastern wildcat.
- Dominant variant
- A gene version that shows its effect even when an animal has only one copy.
- Gene
- A section of DNA that carries instructions for a trait.
- Genome
- All of the DNA of a living thing.
- Obligate carnivore
- An animal that must eat animal tissue to get all the nutrients it needs. Cats are obligate carnivores. See glossary.
- Pheromone
- A chemical signal an animal gives off that other animals of the same species can detect.
- Pseudogene
- A gene that no longer works because of changes in its DNA. The cat's sweet taste gene Tas1r2 is a pseudogene.
- Queen
- An unneutered female cat. An unneutered male is called a tom. See glossary.
- The early weeks of a kitten's life, roughly 2 to 7 weeks, when gentle experiences teach it what is normal and safe. See kittens.
- Taurine
- A nutrient found in meat that cats must get from their food. Too little can cause heart and eye problems. See glossary.
- Wildcat
- Felis silvestris, the wild species group that house cats came from.
Sources
- Cats Protection: Why do cats have whiskers?
- Cornell Feline Health Center: Feeding Your Cat
- Driscoll C.A. et al. (2007) The Near Eastern origin of cat domestication. Science 317(5837):519 to 523
- Cats Protection: Kitten socialisation
- Li X. et al. (2005) Pseudogenization of a sweet-receptor gene accounts for cats' indifference toward sugar. PLoS Genetics 1(1):27 to 35
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APA (7th ed.)
MeowWise. (2026, October 8). Cat science vocabulary list. https://meowwise.com/teachers/vocabulary.html
MLA (9th ed.)
“Cat science vocabulary list.” MeowWise, Joshua Israel Ventures LLC, 8 Oct. 2026, meowwise.com/teachers/vocabulary.html.
Chicago (bibliography)
MeowWise. “Cat science vocabulary list.” Joshua Israel Ventures LLC. Last modified October 8, 2026. https://meowwise.com/teachers/vocabulary.html.