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Catalyst vs Agonist - What's the difference?

catalyst | agonist |

As nouns the difference between catalyst and agonist

is that catalyst is a substance that increases the rate of a chemical reaction without being consumed in the process while agonist is someone involved in a contest or battle (as in an agon).

catalyst

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • (chemistry) A substance that increases the rate of a chemical reaction without being consumed in the process.
  • * 1988 , Biochemistry , 3rd edition, page 177
    • Enzymes, the catalysts of biological systems, are remarkable molecular devices that determine the pattern of chemical transformations.
  • Someone or something that encourages progress or change.
    • Economic development and integration are working as a catalyst for peace.
  • * 1978 , Ernest George Schwiebert, Trout , Volume 2
    • It was a morning baptized by my first cup of coffee, freshly brewed over a gravel-bar fire, while they celebrated with the stronger catalyst of sour-mash whiskey in their fishing-vest cups.
  • * 2004 , Michael B. Oren, Six Days of War: June 1967 and the making of the modern Middle East , page 76
    • Israel's fear for the reactor—rather than Egypt's of it—was the greater catalyst for war.
  • * 2006 , The Freedom Writers, with Erin Gruwell, The Freedom Writers Diary: How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them , Diary 74
    • Rosa Parks was a true catalyst' for change and she was only one person. Hearing about Rosa Parks and her protest showed me that there is hope for me and all the students in Ms. G's classes to truly be ' catalysts for change.
  • * '>citation
  • (literature) An inciting incident which that sets the successive conflict into motion.
  • (automotive) A catalytic converter.

    • Synonyms

    * (Someone or something that encourages progress or change) stimulus, straw that stirs the drink

    Antonyms

    * (something that encourages change) inhibitor * (something that enhances or accelerates) dampener

    Derived terms

    * catalyse, catalyze * catalysis * catalytic

    See also

    * enzyme

    agonist

    English

    (wikipedia agonist)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Someone involved in a contest or battle (as in an agon).
  • The muscle that contracts while the other relaxes.
    • "when bending the elbow the biceps are the agonist "
  • (biochemistry) A molecule that can combine with a receptor on a cell to produce a physiological reaction.
    • "acetylcholine is an agonist at the a cholinergic receptor"

    Derived terms

    * agonistical * agonistics * antagonist * protagonist * deuteragonist * tritagonist