Chiral centre or stereocentre or stereogenic centre: A compound or molecule is said to have

the chiral centre if the carbon atom possesses four different groups. In general, compounds
having chiral centre are optically active, however, not all molecules with stereocenters are
optically active.

Achiral molecule: A molecule whose mirror image is superimposable. These compounds are
optically inactive and here typically at least two of the groups attached to the carbon atom is
similar. Few examples of chiral and achiral compounds are as follows

Now to explain the non-superimposability and superimposability of chiral and achiral

molecule respectively, the most appropriate way is to draw the molecule in it's a
structural form (i.e. tetrahedral) and compare two mirror images. If one of these mirror
images can be rotated to 180 degrees and put on top of each other (superimpose), then
the molecule is achiral and the vice versa is chiral.

The compound 2,3,4-trihydroxybutanal have two chiral centre.

Meso compounds: A meso compound is a molecule with multiple stereocenters

that is superimposable on its mirror image. All meso compounds have something called
an internal mirror plane. This internal mirror plane is simply a line of symmetry or plane
of symmetry that bisects (cuts in half) the molecule. Each half is a mirror image of the
other half and one half superimpose to the other (the upper half superimpose the lower
half of the plane (line drawn in the middle).

Enantiomers: Enantiomers are stereoisomers that are the non-superimposable mirror

image of each other. The word enantiomer describe the relationship between two
objects ( in this case the mirror images).