[Valce]

Sorry for being ignorant... but what does it mean exactly when one 'activates' or 'deactivates' a functional group? I gather that it has something to do with increasing the reactivity and maybe electronegativities... but how do you predict whether a group is activated or not in the first place? Or that adding something else would activate/deactivate it?

Simpler terms would be appreciated... I'm still in high school


Thank you!

[Winga]

I think the best way to describe the activation or deactivation by function groups is how these groups stabilize or destabilize the intemediates or transition states and the reactant states.

[movies]

BTW, electronegativity is a property of atoms not functional groups or activated functional groups.  There have been attempts to approximate "electrongativity" of functional groups, but rigorously electronegativity refers only to atoms.