GMAS 8th Grade Science Practice Test 2026 – Your All-in-One Guide to Exam Success!

A chemical bond is a force that holds atoms together in a molecule or compound. This force arises from how electrons are arranged around atoms, through sharing electrons (covalent bonds), transferring electrons to form ions (ionic bonds), or a sea of delocalized electrons in metals (metallic bonds). These attractions keep atoms in fixed relationships and give substances their structure and properties.

This best describes the bond itself, not what chemists do with reactions or the energy involved. Bond energy is the amount of energy needed to break a specific bond, which is a property of the bond rather than its definition. And talking about bond energy in a solution mixes in solvent effects and doesn’t define what a bond is.