Medical Terminology: Understanding Medical Words
This document discusses medical terminology, including prefixes, suffixes, and how to build medical words. The overall aim is to help understand medical terminology by recognizing prefixes, suffixes, and how they are used to build words that describe medical conditions, procedures, and body parts. This material provides examples of common prefixes like "intra-" and "hyper-" and suffixes like "-itis" and "-algia."
Learning Objectives
To master the foundations of clinical communication, students should be able to:
- Discuss the four parts of medical terms
- Recognize word roots and combining forms
- Identify the most common prefixes and suffixes
- Describe the anatomical positions
- Define the body planes
- Identify regions of the body
- Define directional and positional terms
- Build, divide, spell and pronounce common medical words
The Role of Prefixes
A prefix is added to the beginning of a term. It may add meaning such as the location of an organ (e.g., "inter" = between), the number of parts (e.g., "hemi" = half), or time and frequency (e.g., "pre" = before).
| Prefix | Meaning |
|---|---|
| ab | away from |
| ante | before, forward |
| brady | slow |
| endo | within, inner |
| hyper | above, beyond |
| hypo | under, deficient |
| infra | beneath, below |
| inter | among, between |
| macro | large |
| micro | small |
| peri | around |
| post | after, behind |
| pre | before, in front of |
| retro | backward, behind |
| sub | below, under |
| super | above, excess |
| tachy | fast |
| trans | across, through |
| ultra | beyond, excess |
The Role of Suffixes
A suffix is attached to the end of a term. It adds meaning such as a condition ("algia" = pain), a disease ("itis" = inflammation), or a procedure ("ectomy" = removal of). Notably, all medical terms must have a suffix, as it is the only mandatory word part.
| Suffix | Meaning |
|---|---|
| algia | pain |
| cise | cut |
| dynia | pain, swelling |
| ectasis | dilatation |
| itis | inflammation |
| logy | study of |
| lysis | destruction |
| megaly | enlargement, large |
| oma | tumor |
| osis | condition, usually abnormal |
| pathy | disease |
| rrhea | discharge, flow |
| sclerosis | hardening |
| stenosis | narrowing |
| taxis | movement |
| trophy | growth |
Adjective Suffixes
Suffixes may be used to convert a word root into a complete word. These adjective suffixes can mean "pertaining to." Once formed, the new word can then be used to modify another word. For example, to state that a patient has an ulcer in his stomach: gastr/o (stomach) combined with -ic (pertaining to) creates gastric. Therefore, a gastric ulcer is an ulcer found in the stomach.