Medical Terminology

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته


An Introduction to Medical Terminology

Terminology

Medical terminology is basically Latin or Greek in origin
and is made up of many smaller parts

It might be useful to think of the terminology
as being like a jigsaw palapeli

Each part has a meaning and when joined together with the next part
the meaning changes until when all parts are added a
final meaning can be found

In this section we will be looking at how medical
terminology is formed and at the most common terms
you will need to learn

(The Word Root )

(The Combining Form)

(The Prefix)

(The Suffix)


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The Word Root

Word roots come largely from Latin and Greek and are
the stem or main part of the medical term.
Below you can see some very common medical word roots.
?? Do you know what they mean

nbi, erythr, haem, leuc, path, tox

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The combining form of a word root


nRoot words are very often preceded by a prefix, followed by
a suffix and joined with a combining vowel
The most common combining vowel is ’o’
but can also be ’a’, ’e’ or’i’

When we add the combining vowel,
we get a new word component
– the combining form
This makes the words easier to say


Gastr- + o = Gastro

e.g. gastroenteritis


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A prefix

The prefix comes before the word root and changes its meaning
nThese are derived from Latin and Greek


prefix root suffix

EPI GASTR- IC

epi: prefix meaning 'upon or above'
gastr- : root meaning 'stomach'
ic: suffix meaning 'related to'



Epigastric: pertaining to above or upon the stomach



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A suffix


A suffix comes after the word and modifies its meaning.

Prefix Combining 'o' suffix

Gastr o tomy



Gastr-: meaning stomach
-tomy: suffix meaning 'incision' (cut) into

Gastrotomy: incision into the stomach