Chapter 1: The Language of Medicine (Basic Word Structure)

aden/o

gland

arthr/o

joint

bi/o

life

carcin/o

cancerous, cancer

cardi/o

heart

cephal/o

head

cerebr/o

cerebrum (largest part of the brain)

cis/o, sec/o

to cut

crin/o

to secrete (to form and give off)

cyst/o

urinary bladder; a sac or a cyst (sac containing fluid)

cyt/o, -cyte

cell

derm/o, dermat/o

skin

electr/o

electricity

encephal/o

brain

enter/o

intestines (usually the small intestine)

erythr/o

red

gastr/o

stomach

glyc/o

sugar

gnos/o

knowledge

gynec/o

woman, female

hemat/o, hem/o

blood

hepat/o

liver

iatr/o

treatment, physician

leuk/o

white

log/o

study of

nephr/o

kidney (commonly used to describe pathology within)

neur/o

nerve

onc/o

tumor (cancerous)

ophthalm/o

eye

oste/o

bone

path/o

disease

ped/o

child

psych/o

mind

radi/o

x-rays

ren/o

kidney (commonly used to describe regular kidney)

rhin/o

nose

sarc/o

flesh

thromb/o

clot, clotting

ur/o

urinary tract, urine

-ac, -al, -ic, -ical

pertaining to

-algia

pain

-ectomy

excision, removal

-emia

blood condition

-genic

pertaining to producing, produced by, or produced in

-globin

protein

-gram

record

-ion

process

-ist

specialist

-itis

inflammation

-logy

process of study

-oma

tumor, mass, swelling

-opsy

process of viewing

-osis

condition, usually abnormal (slight increase in numbers when used with blood cells)

-pathy

disease condition

-scope

instrument to visually examine

-scopy

process of visually examining

-sis

state of; condition

-tomy

process of cutting, incision

-y

process, condition

a-, an-

no, not, without

aut-, auto-

self, own

dia-

complete, through

endo-

within

epi-

above, upon

ex-, exo-

out, outside of, outward

hyper-

excessive, above, more than normal

hypo-

deficient, below, under, less than normal

in-

into, in

peri-

surrounding, around

pro-

before, forward

re-

back, backward, again

retro-

behind

sub-

below, under

trans-

across, through