 At the end of the lesson, the students

should be able to:

1. Identify the meaning of the root words, prefixes,
and suffixes commonly used in medical
terminologies,
2. Use commonly used prefixes and suffixes
correctly,
3. Define the meaning of common medical terms
used in the practice of medical technology, and
4. Identify common abbreviations used in clinical
laboratory practice.
 Look for the medical
terms in the paragraph
 A 35-year old patient seeks treatment at the
emergency department of a tertiary level private
hospital. She complained of dizziness, shortness
of breath, hypertension, and arrhythmia.
Laboratory examinations were done and she
found to have anemia, hyperglycemia,
hyperbilirubinemia, glycosuria, and polyuria. On
ultrasound, she was found to have hepatomegaly.
She was also diagnosed to have cardiomegaly.
 derived from GREEK and LATIN words

 required for understanding and

communication with:
◦ Healthcare personnel
◦ Patients
◦ Family members
EXAMPLE:

pseudo thrombo penia

cyto

false deficiency
platelets
 The main part of the medical term
that denotes the meaning of the
word

Examples:
colo – colon
phlebo – vein
hemat – blood
aero - air
Other Examples:
agglut – clump together
angio – vessel
arterio – artery
bili – bile
cephal – head
cubit – elbow
cyst – bladder
derm – skin
Other Examples:
necro – death
nephr – kidney/nephron
oste – bone
phago – eat
pneu – breath
pulmon – lung
ren – kidney
tox– poison
 found at the beginning of the term
 shows how meaning is assigned to
the word

Examples:
a/an – without, absence
hyper – increased, above
poly – many
pre - before
Other Examples:
ambi – both
ante – before
anti – against
cryo – cold
dys– bad/difficult
ecto/exo – outside
endo – inside
epi – on/over
Other Examples:
hypo – below/less
inter – between
intra – within
iso – same
macro – large
neo – new
para – beside
per – through/throughout
Other Examples:
peri – surround/around
post – after
pro – for
tachy – fast
Number prefix:
bi/di – two
tri – three
tetra/quad – four
mono/uni – one
hemi/semi – half
Color prefix:
albi/leuko – white
lute – yellow
cirrho – tawny yellow
cyan – blue
rube/erythro – red
nigr/melano – black
 found at the terminal portion or at the
end of the term
 also denotes the meaning to the root
word

Examples:
megaly – enlargement
uria – urine
emia – blood
ostomy – to make an opening or mouth
Other Examples:
ectomy – surgical removal
gen/genic/genous – origin/cause
itis – inflammation
oma – tumor/growth
pathy – origin/cause
itis – inflammation
oma – tumor/growth
Other Examples:
osis – condition
plegia – paralysis
stasis – control/stopping
tomy – cut
 if the suffix starts with a consonant, a
combining vowel needs to be used
 usually letter O
 the vowel does not change the meaning
of the root word
 added between root word and suffix
Examples:
hemat + logy = hematology
– study of blood
phlebo + tomy = phlebotomy
– venous blood extraction
 made by changing the end of the word
 not by adding s
 follows the rule for irregular nouns
Examples:
SINGULAR PLURAL
bacterium bacteria
nucleus nuclei
thrombus thrombi
bacillus bacilli
ovum ova
spermatozoon spermatozoa
 cardio heart
myo muscle
arterio artery
cyto cell
arthro joint
hepa/hepato liver
pyo pus
 cranio skull
thrombo clot
pyro fever
nephro kidney
osteo bone
 iso same
micro small
macro large
pseudo false
intra inside/within
mono one
nano billionth
hypo decreased
without
anaero
oxygen
homo same, like
cryo cold
neo new
 itis inflammation of
megaly enlargement
blast young
cidal killing of
poiesis formation
meter measure
ectomy surgical removal
 blood
emia
condition
pathy disease
penia deficiency
oma tumor, growth
cutting
tome
instrument
DOH Department of Health
Commission on Higher
CHED
Education
Venereal Disease Research
VDRL
Laboratories
Acquired Immunodeficiency
AIDS
Syndrome
AMI Acute Myocardial Infarction
 BUN Blood Urea Nitrogen
2 hours Post Prandial Blood
2ᴼPPBS
Sugar
AFB Acid Fast Bacilli
Philippine Council for Quality
PCQACL Assurance in the Clinical
Laboratories
FBS Fasting Blood Sugar
IV Intravenous
Human Immunodeficiency Virus
HIV

IU International Unit
ICU Intensive Care Unit
K Potassium
Na Sodium
NPO Nothing per Orem
BAP Blood Agar Plate
NPO
TAG
HDL
ALT
ACP
ALP
NPN
BUA
GTT
PCR
ALL
AML
NA
TCBS
MH
CBC
MCV
MCH
EEG
GS
CNS
 ABG
EDTA
CPD
ASAP
STAT