CH.1 Basic Word Structure

medterm

root

foundation of a word

suffix

word ending

prefix

small part attached to the beginning of a term

combining vowel

vowel (usually o) that links the root to the suffix or the root to another root

combining form

root + combining vowel

aden/o

gland

arthr/o

joint

bi/o

life

carcin/o

cancerous, cancer

cardi/o

heart

cephal/o

head

cerebr/o

cerebrum

cis/o

to cut

crin/o

to secrete

cyst/o

urinary bladder

cyt/o

cell

dermat/o

skin

electr/o

electricity

encephal/o

brain

enter/o

intestines (usually referring to small)

erythr/o

red

gastr/o

stomach

glyc/o

sugar

gnos/o

knowledge

gynec/o

woman, female

hemat/o

blood

hepat/o

liver

iatr/o

physician, treatment

leuk/o

white

log/o

study of

nephr/o

kidney

neur/o

nerve

onc/o

tumor

ophthalm/o

eye

oste/o

bone

path/o

disease

ped/o

child

psych/o

mind

radi/o

x-rays

rhin/o

nose

sarc/o

flesh

thromb/o

clot, clotting

ur/o

urinary tract, urine

-ac

pertaining to

-al

pertaining to

-algia

pain

-cyte

cell

sect/o

to cut

ren/o

kidney

hem/o

blood

derm/o

skin

-ectomy

removal, excision

-emia

blood condition

-genic

produced by or in

-globin

protein

-gram

record

-ic

pertaining to

-ical

pertaining to

-ion

process

-ist

specialist

-itis

inflammation

-logy

process of study

-oma

tumor, mass, swelling

-opsy

process of viewing

-osis

condition (usually abnormal)

-pathy

disease condition

-scope

instrument to visually examine

-scopy

process of visually examining

-sis

state of, condition

-tomy

incision, process of cutting

-y

process, condition

a-

no, not, without

an-

no, not, without

aut-

self, own

auto-

self, own

dia-

complete, through

end-

within

endo-

within

epi-

above, upon

ex-

out, outside of, outward

exo-

out, outside of, outward

hyper-

excessive, above, more than normal

hypo-

deficient, below, under, less than normal

in-

in, into

peri-

surrounding, around

pro-

before, forward

re-

back, backward, again

retro-

behind

sub-

below, under

trans-

across, through