A chemical reaction is a process that always results in the interconversion of chemical substances. The substance or substances initially involved in a chemical reaction are called reactants. Chemical reactions are usually characterized by a chemical change, and they yield one or more products, which usually have properties different from the reactants.

Classically, chemical reactions encompass changes that strictly involve the motion of electrons in the forming and breaking of chemical bonds, although the general concept of a chemical reaction, in particular the notion of a chemical equation, is applicable to transformations of elementary particles, as well as nuclear reactions. Different chemical reactions are used in combination in chemical synthesis in order to get a desired product. In biochemistry, series of chemical reactions catalyzed by enzymes form metabolic pathways, by which syntheses and decompositions ordinarily impossible in conditions within a cell are performed.

The large diversity of chemical reactions and approaches to their study results in the existence of several concurring, often overlapping, ways of classifying them. Below are examples of widely used terms for describing common kinds of reactions. Organic reactions encompass a wide assortment of reactions involving compounds which have carbon as the main element in their molecular structure.

The reactions in which an organic compound may take part are largely defined by its functional groups.

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