This dictionary is concerned with the words and phrases of the English language that are used to characterise the concepts, phenomena and artefacts associated with biomaterials science and its related disciplines. There are many reasons why the dictionary has been written, but they tend to reflect two concerns that I and others have voiced over the last 25-30 years, during which biomaterials science has become of global importance.

The first of these is linked to the multidisciplinary nature of the subject, where contributions to the underlying scientific principles, to the practical applications of these principles, and, in consequence, to the vocabulary, are derived from so many fields of science and clinical practice. These contributing disciplines range from materials science itself, to the physical sciences and engineering, to the whole spectrum of biological sciences and to the wide range of clinical practices. As a result of this, it is inevitable that surgeons will be reading the literature that contains the language of engineers, that engineers attempt to read the obscure language of molecular biologists and geneticists, and cell biologists try to understand the writings of surgeons. It is obviously important that each can understand the other. Equally importantly, we find that surgeons are writing about engineering, engineers will be writing about biology and biologists will be writing about clinical practices. It would be very useful to the reader of any of these publications to know that the authors actually understood the subject and, in particular, understood the proper meanings of the words they were using.