Medical Terminology

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Medical Terminology

• Word Roots
• Prefixes
• Suffixes
• Abbreviations

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WORD ROOTS (a-c)

• aden gland
• arter/io artery
• arthro joint
• bio life
• bronch bronchial tube
• carcin cancer
• cardio heart

• cephal head
• cerebr/o brain
• chem drug
• chole gall, bile
• cost/o ribs
• cysto bladder, sac
• cyt/e cell

3
WORD ROOTS (d-m)

• derm/a skin
• enter/o intestine
• erythro red
• gastr/o stomach
• gingiv/a gum
• gloss tongue

• hepat liver
• hemo blood
• hydro water
• hyster/o uterus
• lingua tongue
• mamm, mast breast
• myo muscle

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WORD ROOTS (n-t) last group

• nephro, ren kidney
• neuro nerve
• ocul,opthalm eye
• odont, dent tooth
• oophor ovary
• osteo bone
• oto ear

• pneumo lung
• psych mind, soul
• rhin nose
• splen spleen
• thorac thorax, chest
• trach trachea

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PREFIXES (a-e)

• a,an without
• anti against
• aut/o self
• bi both, two
• brady slow

• contra against
• dys painful, difficult
• ecto outside
• end/o inside
• epi upper, above
• ex out, from

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PREFIXES (h-n)

• hemi half
• hyper excessive, above, more than
• hypo deficient, below, less than
• inter between

• intra inside, within
• leuk/o white
• micro small
• neo new

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PREFIXES (p-t) last group

• peri around
• poly many, much
• post behind, after
• pre before, in front of
• pro forward

• semi half
• sub below
• tachy fast
• tele distant, far

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SUFFIXES (a-g)

• alagia pain
• centesis surgical puncture
• ectomy surgical removal

• emesis vomit
• emia blood
• genic orgin, source
• gram, graph pictures, record

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SUFFIXES (i-o)

• ic pertaining to
• itis inflammation
• lysis destruction
• malacia softening
• megaly enlarged
• ologist specialist
• ology study of

• oma tumor
• orrhagia hemorrhage
• orrhea flow
• osis condition of
• ostomy surgical opening
• otomy cut into

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SUFFIXES (p-u) last group

• pathy disease
• penia deficiency
• phobia fear
• plasty surgical repair
• ptosis drooping down

• sclerosis hardening
• scope picture, inspection
• spasm contraction
• stasis stoppage
• uria urine

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ABBREVIATIONS

• stat
• VS
• Rx
• PRN, prn
• Hs/hs
• NPO
• po
• bid
• q2h
• amb

• mg
• mL
• L
• cc
• tsp
• tbsp/T
• qs
• EKG
• DC or D/C
• EEG
• DNR