The Chemistry of Biology Practice Test

In dissolution, the substance that gets dissolved is the solute, while the substance doing the dissolving is the solvent. When water is the dissolving medium, the dissolved material is called the solute, and the resulting uniform mixture is a solution. A suspension, on the other hand, contains particles that do not fully dissolve and may settle out over time.

So substances that dissolve in water are the solute. The water is the solvent, and the overall mixture is a solution. A suspension describes a mixture with undissolved particles, not a fully dissolved one.