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Medical Terminology

How does it work?

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FOUR WORD PARTS

  • Most medical terms can be broken down into one or more word parts.
  • There are FOUR possible word parts, and any given medical term may contain one, some, or all of these parts.
  • We can classify these parts as
    • roots
    • prefixes
    • suffixes
    • and a linking or combining vowel.

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FOUR PART EXAMPLE

An example of a word with three of the above parts is the medical term “pericarditis”, which means “inflammation of the outer layer of the heart”. Pericarditis can be divided into three parts:

peri - card - itis

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“surrounding” “heart” “inflammation”

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WHAT’S IN A ROOT

  • Medical terms MUST always consist of at least ONE root, but can contain more than one.
  • The root represents the essential meaning of the word.
  • For example: the root - card - means heart. Any prefix or suffix will just add to the specificity of the root.

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ROOTS

  • Using the root “card” we will add to it.
  • If we add the prefix “brady”

to “card, we get “bradycard” which roughly means “slow heart”.

  • If we add the suffix “ia”

to the end of “bardychard” we get the medical term BRADYCHARDIA which means the condition of a slow heart rate.

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MORE THAN ONE ROOT?

  • A medical term does NOT need to have a prefix and/or a suffix.
  • An example of this is: STERNOCLEIDOMASTOID, which is a muscle that has an attachment at the sternum, the clavicle, and the mastoid.
  • Can you break this word down into the three roots?

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VOWELS THAT LINK

  • The fourth word part of medical terminology are linking/combining vowels.
  • Did you notice the vowels between the last example:

STERN - O - CLEID - O - MASTOID?

  • These linking vowels are used to make terms easier to pronounce.
  • The vowel most often used is “o”, but “i” and “a” are also used.
  • Vowels are most often used

between roots and suffixes OR roots and other roots.

  • They are NOT used between prefixes and roots.

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Small Changes BIG Differences

Knowing the definitions of your prefixes, suffixes and roots could be the difference between life and death.

Take for example Systole and Asystole.

Systole means contraction of the heart.

What do you think Asystole means?

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Make Sure to REMEMBER

Go to Quizlet at:

http://quizlet.com/11704355/medical-terminology-combining-forms-prefixes-and-suffixes-flash-cards/

to practice your definitions as well as combining the four different possible word parts!

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I have the link posted on my website!