Reactant

Real World Example

Imagine you are preparing a meal and decide to cook pasta, but you realize you need to boil water first. Just like how the water changes from cold to boiling to cook the pasta, a reactant in a chemical reaction starts as one substance and is transformed into something new. In this analogy, the water is the reactant; it undergoes a change (the boiling process) enabling the pasta to cook, just as a reactant undergoes change to create new substances in a reaction.