Medical Terminology
Introduction
to
Medical Terminology
Presented by:
Dr. Yousif A. Hasan
Objectives of this lecture
• Identify and distinguish among the four elements of medical
terms: roots, suffixes, prefixes, and combining form.
• Describe how medical terms are divided into word elements.
• Apply the basic rules to define and build medical words.
• Locate the pronunciation guidelines chart and interpret
pronunciation marks.
• State the rules for determining singular and plural endings.
2
ORIGIN OF MEDICAL TERMS
• Hippocrates was a Greek
physician and is known as the
“father of medicine.”
• 75% of medical terms are based
on either Greek or Latin words.
4
What are the basic elements of medical terms
prefix root Combining suffix
vowel
Combining form
5
Word Roots (WR)
❖ Usuallyderived form Greek or Latin
❖ Frequently indicates a body part
❖ Most medical terms have one or more word roots
Eg:
cardiology
Examples of Word Roots
Word Word Root
(heart) Cardi
(stomach) Gastr
(liver) Hepat
(kidney) Nephr
(bone) oste
Combining Forms (CF)
❖ Combining Form (CF) is a Word Root
(WR) plus a vowel, usually an “o”
❖ Usually indicates a body part
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
❖ thorac/o -tomy Thoracotomy
chest incision incision of the chest
❖ gastr/o -megaly Gastromegaly
stomach enlargement enlargement of the
stomach
Disorder Suffixes
Disorder suffix Meaning
-ema swelling
-trophy nourishment
-ia condition of
-iasis abnormal condition of
-megaly enlargement
-oma tumour (mass which may or may not
be cancerous)
-osis abnormal condition
-ptysis spitting up
-staxis dripping blood
SUFFIXES: Surgical Procedures
-centesis – surgical puncture
-desis – surgical binding
-ectomy – excision, removal, cut out
-pexy – surgical fixation
Moe, after the
-plasty – surgical repair, correction bandages come off
and the wounds
-rrhaphy – suture heal, you’ll still be a
-sect – to cut pig.
-stomy – forming a new opening
(permanent opening)
-tome – instrument for cutting
-tomy – incision into, cut into
-tripsy – to crush, break down
SUFFIXES: diagnostic procedures
-gram – written record, recording
-graph – instrument for recording
-graphy – process of recording
-manometer – instrument for measuring pressure
-manometry – process of measuring pressure
-meter – instrument for measuring
-metery – process of measuring
-opsy – Visual examination
-scope - instrument for examining
-scopy – process of examining, examination
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
Common prefixes
Disorder Prefixes Meaning
a, an without
Brady (bradycardia) slow
Dys (dysfunction) difficult or painful
Hyper (hyperthermia) above
Hypo (hypothermia) below
Oligo (oliguria) few
Poly (polyuria) many
Tachy (tachycardia) fast
Number Prefixes
bi– two
hemi– half
mono– one
multi– many
nulli– None poly– many
nulliparous
quad– four
semi– partial, half
tri– three
uni– one
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 = colonoscope
osteo/ o/ chondr/ itis = osteochondritis
Defining Medical Words
❖ First,
define the suffix or ending
❖ Second, define the prefix, or beginning
❖ Third, define the middle
Endocarditis
Inner layer heart inflammation
Inflammation the inner layer of the heart
Medical terms
Diseases and disorders
✓ Aetiology - study of cause of diseases
✓ Signs – clinical evidence of cause of diseases or disorders
✓ Symptoms – indicators of disease that the patient is experiencing
✓ Disease – set of signs and symptoms that disrupts normal function of a
body system or organ
✓ Diagnosis – is when the doctor finds or decides what is causing the
signs and symptoms i.e. the disease or disorder
Diseases and disorders
✓ Prognosis – forecast of the outcome / recovery from the
disease
✓ Morbidity – presence of illness or disease
✓ Mortality – death
✓ Acute – beginning abruptly and usually intense
✓ Chronic – refers to something lasting for a long time
✓ Terminal - will cause death
Hints for pronouncing
Consonant Example
c (before a,o,u) = k Cavity, colon,cure
c (before e,i )= s Cephalic, cirrhosis
ch = k cholesterol
g (before a, o, u) = g gallstone,gonad
g (before e, i ) = j generic, giant
Hints for pronouncing
Consonant Example
ph = f phase, pharnyx
pn = n pneumonia
ps = s psychiatry, psychology
pt = t ptosis,
rh,rrh rhythm, haemorrhoid
Singular & plural
singular example plural example
-a vertebra -ae vertebrae
-ax thorax -aces thoraces
-is diagnosis -es diagnoses
-ix, -ex appendix -ices appendices
-um diverticulum -a diverticula
-us bronchus -i bronchi
-y ovary -ies ovaries
Thanks for your attention •
28 November 1, 2018
