Medical terminology

Boon college
What is Medical Terminology?

• Language of health care professionals

• Terms used to describe structures, organs, systems, functions,
procedures, situations, disorders, objects etc.
• Medical terms are mostly derived from Latin & Greek
Important elements of medical terms
• Parts of a medical term/word
1.Root. It is afoundation of the term
2.Suffix: Ending part of a word
3.Prefix: Beginning part of a word
4.Combing vowel: vowel usually “O” that links the root to the suffix
5.Combining form: combination of the root and the combining vowel
Root

• Contains the meaning of the word

• Frequently indicates a body part
• e.g. Hemat means Blood
• Word roots are usually derived from Greek or Latin
• Cardi: heart
• Gastric: stomach
• Medical terms usually have one or more roots e.g.
• In the term gastroenterology, “gastr” and “enter” are roots
• Some medical terms are built without a word root e.g.
• Hyper = Prefix meaning excessive
• Trophy = Suffix meaning development
• Hypertrophy= Excessive development
• A single word root cannot stand alone
Combining Vowel/FORMS

• To make a medical term easier to pronounce, a combining vowel is

added to combine two-word parts
• Between two-word roots
• Between word root and suffix
• Combing vowel is most commonly the letter ‘O’
• A word root with a combining vowel is called a Combining Form
e.g. cardi/o= cardio
• hemat/o= Hemato(combining form)
• If the suffix begins with a vowel (a,e,i,o,u), do not use a combining
vowel
• e.g. Gastr/o+ itis= Gastritis, not gastroitis
• If the suffix begins with a consonant, use a combining vowel

• e.g. Enter/o+ pathy= Enteropathynot enterpathy

• cyt/o Cell Cytology
Suffixes

• A suffix comes at the end of a word

• Suffixes usually, but not always, indicate a procedure, a condition,a
disorder or a disease
• A suffix is always added after aword root to complete the term
e.g.neur/o means nerves
• Neural means pertaining to nerves
• neuralgia is pain in the nerves
Basic Suffixes
Prefixes

• A prefix comes to the beginning of the term

• Usually indicate a number, measurement, position/direction, color or
status
• Not all medical terms contain prefixes
• e.g.:
• Subgastric means pertaining to under stomach
• Epigastric means pertaining to above the stomach
Basic prefix
THANK YOU