NURS 1103 or HLSC 2613

Medical
Terminology

Welcome
Course Faculty
Larry Hurst
Main Objective:
Learn Medical Terminology
New students to Medical
Terminology often bewildered
by strange spelling and
pronunciation.

Approximately 75% of Medical
Terms are based on either
Greek or Latin
Medical Terminology
Mispronunciations
Artery - The study of fine paintings.
Barium - What you do when CPR fails.
Benign - What you are after you be eight.
Coma - A punctuation mark.
Morbid - A higher offer.
Urine - opposite of youre out.
Tablet - A small table.

Course Description
A study of physiological systems approach to
provide principles of medical word building.
Provides medical vocabulary including
anatomy, physiology, systems, diagnostic
testing and pharmacology. This course is
appropriate for health care administration,
health science students such as nursing,
dental hygiene, paramedics, and physical
therapy assisting; as well as court reporting
and medical transcriptionist students.
Course Objectives
Apply basic principles of medical word
building.
Correctly pronounce medical terms.
Define common medical terms.
Relate common medical terms to human
anatomy and physiology; common disease
states, pharmacological categories and
diagnostic tests.
Identify the medical terminology in medical
record reports.
16 Lessons
1. Basic Elements of a Medical Word
2. Suffixes: Surgical, Diagnostic, etc
3. Suffixes: Adjective, Noun,
Diminutive
4. Prefixes
5. Body Structure
6. Integumentary System
7. Gastrointestinal System
Lessons, continued
8. Respiratory System
9. Cardiovascular System
10. Blood, Lymph, and Immune Systems
11. Musculoskeletal System
12. Genitourinary System
13. Female Reproductive System
14. Endocrine System
Lessons, continued
15. Nervous System
16. Special Senses
A Busy Course!
Are you feeling like
a lot of information
is about to come
your way?
The answer is
YES.
Now, lets begin
Chapter 1
Basic Elements of Medical Word
Medical Dictionary Use
Look Up Unfamiliar Terms
Word Roots (WR)
Usually derived form Greek or Latin
Frequently indicates a body part
Most medical terms have one or more
word roots
Examples of Word Roods
Greek Word Word Root
Kardia (heart) Cardi
Gaster (stomach) Gastr
Hepar (liver) Hepat
Nephros (kidney) Nephr
Osteon (bone) oste
Combining Form (CF) is a Word Root
(WR) plus a vowel, usually an o
Usually indicates a body part
Combining Forms (CF)
Combining Forms Examples
Cardi/ + o = cardi/o heart
gastr/ + o = gastr/o stomach
hepat/ + o = hepat/o liver
nephr/ + o = nephr/o kidney
oste/ + o = oste/o bone
Suffixes
Word Ending
Suffix usually indicates a procedure,
condition, disease, or part of speech
Usually derived from Greek or Latin
Examples of Suffix
Arthr/o -centesis Arthrocentesis
joint puncture puncture of a joint

throac/o -tomy Thoracotomy
chest incision incision of the chest

gastr/o -megaly Gastromegaly
stomach enlargement enlargement of the
stomach

Prefixes
Word element located at the beginning
of a word
Changes the meaning of the word
Usually indicates a number, time,
position, direction, color, or sense of
negation
Examples of Prefix
A- mast -ia
without breast condition

hyper- therm -ia
excessive heat condition

intra- muscul -ar
in muscle relating to
Basic Rule One
A WR (word root) is used before a
suffix that begins with a vowel.
Scler/ + osis = sclerosis
Basic Rule Two
A combining vowel is used to link a
WR to a suffix that begins with a
consonant and to link a WR to another
WR to form a compound word
colon/o + scope = colonscope
osteo/ o/ chondr/ itis =
osteochondritis


Defining Medical Words
First, define the suffix or ending
Second, define the prefix, or beginning
Third, define the middle
Pronunciation Guidelines
Ae and oe
c and g
e and es
ch
I
pn
ps
End of Chapter One