Medical Terminologies
Common Medical Terms
Benign: Non-cancerous, mild.
Biopsy: Examination of tissue samples.
Acute: Sudden onset, severe.
Angina: Chest pain due to reduced blood flow to the heart.
Lesion: An area of abnormal tissue.
Cellulitis: A bacterial skin infection.
Malignant: Cancerous, can spread.
Edema: Swelling due to fluid retention.
Polyp: Abnormal tissue growth.
Importance of Medical Terminology
Precise description of the human body components, processes, illnesses, procedures, and pharmacology.
Originates from Greek or Latin.
Example: "Arthritis" (from Greek "arthron" meaning joint + "itis" meaning inflammation).
Word Roots, Suffixes & Prefixes
Elements of Medical Terms
Roots: Derived from Greek or Latin nouns or verbs; express the basic meaning of terms.
Prefixes: One or two syllables added to the beginning of a term to modify its meaning.
Example: "adrenal" (above kidney)
Prefix "ad-" (near) + Root "renal" (kidney).
Suffixes: Syllables added to the end of a root to modify its meaning or grammatical function.
Change meaning or convert a word to another part of speech (e.g., noun or adjective).
Examples of Suffixes
-oid: like, resembling (cuboid)
-ose: composed of carbohydrates (glucose)
-itis: inflammation (dermatitis)
-osis: condition of (arthrosis)
-lysis: breakdown (hemolysis)
-ology: study of (cytology)
Formation of Medical Terms
Composed of Different Elements
Root + Suffix:
Carcinoma: Carcin(o) (crab) + oma (tumor).
Sarcoma: Sarc(o) (flesh) + oma (tumor).
Cerebral: Cerebr (brain) + al (pertaining to).
Prefix + Root:
Neoplasm: Neo (new) + plasm (growth, formation).
Dysfunction: Dys (difficult) + function (normal action).
Prefix + Root + Suffix:
Hypoglycemia: Hypo (under) + glyc (sugar) + emia (blood).
Encephalitis: En (in) + cephal (head) + itis (inflammation).
Two Roots:
Biostatistics: Bio (life) + statistics (numerical facts).
Erythroblast: Erythr(o) (red) + blast (germ cell).
Microfilm: Micr(o) (small) + film.