The chemical aspects of defects of relevance to inorganic crystalline solids are described, especially the close links with the composition of inorganic nonstoichiometric compounds. Section 2 deals with point defect chemistry, including solid solutions and nonstoichiometry, concluding with a description of the Kroger–Vink point defect notation and the formalism required for the incorporation of defect formation into chemical equations. Section 3 describes defects in near stoichiometric monatomic and polyatomic crystals, including Schottky, Frenkel, and antisite defects, together with formulae for the Gibbs energy associated with defect formation. Section 4 covers the inter‐relationship between point defects and electronic conductivity. This includes a description of the visualization of these interdependencies via the Brouwer diagram formalism. Section 5 describes the defect structures associated with color centers, including the important NV centers in diamond. Compounds that contain extremely disordered and mobile cations are covered in Section 6, while Section 7 is concerned with grossly nonstoichiometric crystals, which includes a description of point defect clusters and their chemistry. Section 8 briefly introduces the concepts of defects in materials in which interpolation and intercalation are important. Section 9 covers extended defects, including dislocations, crystallographic shear and twinning, and the extended defects formed by pentagonal columns. The defect chemistry of modular structures, described with reference to perovskite‐related structures, is also described in this section.