1. Medical Terminology
Introduction
to
Medical Terminology
Presented by:
Dr. Yousif A.Hasan

3. Objectives of thislecture
2
• 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.

5. 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

6. What are the basic elements of medicalterms
prefix root Combining
vowel
suffix
Combining form
5

7. Word Roots (WR)
❖ Usually derived form Greek or Latin
❖ Frequently indicates a body part
❖ Most medical terms have one or more word roots
Eg:
cardiology

8. Examples of Word Roots
Word Word Root
(heart) Cardi
(stomach) Gastr
(liver) Hepat
(kidney) Nephr
(bone) oste

9. ❖ Combining Form (CF) is a Word Root
(WR) plus a vowel, usually an “o”
❖ Usually indicates a body part
Combining Forms (CF)

10. Combining Forms Examples
❖ Cardi/ + o = cardi/o
❖ gastr/ + o = gastr/o
❖ hepat/ + o = hepat/o
❖ nephr/ + o = nephr/o
❖ oste/ + o = oste/o
heart
stomach
liver
kidney
bone

11. Suffixes
❖ Word Ending
❖ Suffix usually indicates a procedure, condition,
disease, or part of speech
❖ Usually derived from Greek or Latin

12. Examples of Suffix
❖ Arthr/o -centesis
joint puncture
Arthrocentesis
puncture of a joint
❖ thorac/o -tomy
chest incision
Thoracotomy
incision of the chest
❖ gastr/o -megaly Gastromegaly
stomach enlargement enlargement of the
stomach

13. Disorder Suffixes
Disorder suffix Meaning
-ema swelling
-trophy nourishment
-ia condition of
-iasis abnormal condition of
-megaly enlargement
-oma tumour (mass which may or maynot
be cancerous)
-osis abnormal condition
-ptysis spitting up
-staxis dripping blood

14. SUFFIXES: Surgical Procedures
-centesis – surgical puncture
-desis – surgical binding
-ectomy – excision, removal, cut out
-pexy – surgical fixation
-plasty – surgical repair, correction
-rrhaphy – suture
-sect – to cut
-stomy – forming a new opening
(permanent opening)
-tome – instrument for cutting
-tomy – incision into, cut into
-tripsy – to crush, break down
Moe, after the
bandages comeoff
and the wounds
heal, you’ll still bea
pig.

16. 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

17. 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

18. Examples of Prefix
❖ A-
without
mast
breast
-ia
condition
❖ hyper- therm
excessive heat
-ia
condition
❖ intra- muscul -ar
in muscle relating to

19. 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

20. Number Prefixes
 bi– two
 hemi– half
 mono– one
 multi–
 nulli–
many
None
nulliparous
 poly– many
 quad– four
 semi– partial, half
 tri– three
 uni– one

21. Basic Rule One
❖ A WR (word root) is used before a suffix that begins
with a vowel.
Scler/ + osis = sclerosis

22. 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

23. Defining Medical Words
❖ First, define the suffix or ending
❖ Second, define the prefix, or beginning
❖ Third, define the middle
Endocarditis
heart inflammation
Inner layer
Inflammation the inner layer of the heart

25. 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

26. Diseases and disorders
✓ Prognosis – forecast of the outcome / recovery from t
h
e
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

27. 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

28. Hints for pronouncing
Consonant Example
ph = f phase, pharnyx
pn = n pneumonia
ps = s psychiatry, psychology
pt = t ptosis,
rh,rrh rhythm, haemorrhoid

30. 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
Singular &plural

32. Thanks for your attention •
28 November 1,2018