* A configurational stereoisomer is a stereoisomer of a reference molecule that has the opposite configuration at a stereocenter (e.g., R- vs S- or E- vs Z-). This means that configurational isomers can be interconverted only by breaking covalent bonds to the stereocenter, for example, by inverting the configurations of some or all of the stereocenters in a compound.
* An epimer is a diastereoisomer that has the opposite configuration at only one of the stereocenters.