<u>Cellular respiration</u> is a <u>catabolic process</u>.
The process by which organisms combine oxygen with food molecules, <u>diverting the chemical energy</u> in these substances into life-sustaining activities while discarding carbon dioxide and water as waste products. Photosynthesis is an anabolic (or "building up") pathway that creates sugars from smaller molecules. <u>Cellular respiration</u>, on the other hand, <u>is a "breaking down," or catabolic</u>, pathway that breaks sugar down into smaller molecules.