Medical Terminology Word Parts Cheat Sheet

A high-yield vocabulary guide covering the most common medical prefixes, suffixes, and roots used to decode complex medical terminology.

-itis

inflammation

-osis, -iasis

abnormal condition

-oma

tumor / mass

-pathy

disease

-algia

pain

-dynia

pain

-emesis

vomiting

-rrhea

flow/discharge

-rrhage / -rrhagia

excessive bleeding/flow

-ectomy

surgical removal

-otomy

cutting into

-ostomy

surgical opening

-scopy

visual examination

-graphy / -gram

imaging/recording

-emia

blood condition

-penia

deficiency

-cytosis

increased cells

-logy

study of

-logist

specialist

hyper-

high / excessive

hypo-

low / under

macro-

large

micro-

small

tachy-

fast

brady-

slow

peri-

around

intra-

within

inter-

between

sub-

under

super-

above

a- / an-

without / lack of

dys-

painful / difficult / abnormal

uni-

one

bi-

two

tri-

three

cardi/o

heart

angi/o

vessel

hemat/o / hem/o

blood

pulmon/o

lung

bronch/o

airway

neur/o

nerve

encephal/o

brain

gastr/o

stomach

hepat/o

liver

cholecyst/o

gallbladder

enter/o

intestine

oste/o

bone

arthr/o

joint

my/o

muscle

nephr/o / ren/o

kidney

cyst/o

bladder

derm/o

skin

cephal/o

head

ophthalm/o

eye

-megaly

enlargement

hepatomegaly

enlarged liver

bradycardia

slow heart rate

bronchitis

airway inflammation