The linear (simple) types of inhibition can be classified in terms of the general equation for mixed inhibition at an inhibitor concentration :
in which  is the competitive inhibition constant and  is the uncompetitive inhibition constant. This equation includes the other types of inhibition as special cases:
* If  the second parenthesis in the denominator approaches  and the resulting behaviour is competitive inhibition.
* If  the first parenthesis in the denominator approaches  and the resulting behaviour is uncompetitive inhibition.
* If both  and  are finite the behaviour is mixed inhibition.
* If  the resulting special case is pure non-competitive inhibition.
Pure non-competitive inhibition is very rare, being mainly confined to effects of protons and some metal ions. Cleland recognized this, and he redefined noncompetitive to mean mixed. Some authors have followed him in this respect, but not all, so when reading any publication one needs to check what definition the authors are using.
In all cases the kinetic equations have the form of the Michaelis–Menten equation with apparent constants, as can be seen by writing the equation above as follows:
with apparent values  and  defined as follows: