Medical Terminolgy

• A convenient shorthand which doctors (and other health care professionals) use to communicate with each other.

  Medical jargon
• are words or terms which make up the language of medicine.

  Medical terminology
• Basic Elements of a Medical Word:

  1. Root word or the stem
  2. Combining form or combining vowel
  3. Prefix
  4. Suffix
• is the main part or foundation of a word. They are often referred to as stem.

  Root word
• A combining vowel 


  is a vowel added to the root word to allow new words to be more easily pronounced. The letter o is the most used combining vowel.
• Root word + combining vowel =

  Combining Form
• is a part of the word that comes after the root word. It provides an ending and gives specific meaning to the root.

  suffix
• prefix


  is a word part that comes before the root. It usually, but not always, tells the TIME, POSITION, LOCATION, DIRECTION, COLOR, NUMBER and SENSE OF NEGATION.
• amastia


  without a breast
• hyperthermia


  condition of excessive heat
• macroglossia


  condition of large tongue
• intramuscular


  relating to within the muscles
• IDENTIFY THE LOCATION

  arthrocentesis = joint
• IDENTIFY THE LOCATION

  appendectomy = appendix
• IDENTIFY THE LOCATION

  colostomy = colon
• IDENTIFY THE LOCATION

  osteotome = bone
• IDENTIFY THE LOCATION

  phlebotomy = vein
• Adjective suffixes are words used to modify nouns.
• ADJECTIVE SUFFIXES

  -ac (rarely used) = cardiac (heart)
• ADJECTIVE SUFFIXES

  -al = neural (nerve)
• ADJECTIVE SUFFIXES

  -ar = muscular (muscle)
• ADJECTIVE SUFFIXES

  -ary = salivary (saliva)
• ADJECTIVE SUFFIXES

  -eal = meningeal (meninges)
• ADJECTIVE SUFFIXES

  -ic = hypodermic (under skin)
• ADJECTIVE SUFFIXES

  -ical (-ic &-al) = medical (medicine)
• ADJECTIVE SUFFIXES

  -ory = auditory (hearing)
• ADJECTIVE SUFFIXES

  -ous = cutaneous (skin)
• ADJECTIVE SUFFIXES

  -tic = acoustic (sound)