Ch 1 Medical Terminology- Basic Word Structure

Three General Rules of reading medical terms

1: Read the meaning of the term from the suffix back to the beginning of the term and across

2: Drop the combining vowel (usually o) before a suffix beginning with a vowel: gastritis NOT "gastroitis"

3: Keep the combining vowel between two roots: gastroenterology, NOT "gastrenterology"

Root

Foundation of the term

Suffix

Word ending

Prefix

Word beginning

Combining Vowel

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

Combining form

combination of the root and the combining vowel

cerebr/o

cerebrum (largest part of the brain)

cis/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

cell

derm/o AND 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 AND hem/o

blood

hepat/o

liver

iatr/o

treatment, physician

leuk/o

white

-logist

specialist in the 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

ren/o

kidney

rhin/o

nose

sarc/o

flesh

sect/o

to cut

thromb/o

clot, clotting

ur/o

urinary tract, urine

-ac

pertaining to

-al

pertaining to

-algia

pain

-cyte

cell

-ectomy

excision, removal

-emia

blood condition

-genic

pertaining to, producing, produced by, or produced in

-globin

protein

-gram

record

-ic, -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 (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

-col/o

large intestine

aden/o

gland

my/o

muscle

cephal/o

head

Arthr/o

joints

opth/o

eye