Jennifer L. Dorsey

Grasping medical terminology starts with knowing the body’s systems, recognizing medical root words commonly used, understanding the Greek influence in medical terminology, and learning those pesky hard-to-spell medical words.Your Body’s SystemsYour body is made up of many systems, each having their own vital parts that work together.

What makes up the inside of your body, from cells to organs and everything in between, lends itself to an abundance of body part-related medical terms. All the root words and combining forms can morph into all kinds of different words that explain everything from everyday common conditions and procedures to pathology and pharmacology.

The roots, as always, are essential medical terminology knowledge because once you master these roots (those good ol’ Greek and Latin ones, that is), you can break down any skeletal-related word and discover its meaning. Once you’ve gotten to know the specific parts of the skeletal system a bit better, it’s time to put your expertise into practice by breaking down the root words into meanings and useful applications.

If you are just getting started learning medical terminology, prefixes and suffixes are a good launching point. Yes, there are lots more prefixes for medical terminology than you see listed here. But, to get you started, here is a quick look at some of the most common prefixes that play a huge role in both common, everyday English and medical terminology.

Once you know the specific parts of the cardiovascular and lymphatic systems a bit better, it’s time to put your medical terminology expertise into practice. Here’s a list of cardio roots, prefixes, and suffixes. It also gives an example medical term for each. Root Word What It Means Example Aort/o Aorta Aortic Angi/o Vessel Angiogram Arteri/o Artery Arteriosclerosis Arteriol/o Arteriole Arteriolitis Ather/o Yellow plaque or fatty substance Atherosclerosis Atri/o, atri/a Atrium Atrioventricular Cardi/o Heart Cardiomegaly Coron/o Heart Coronary Ox/o, ox/i Oxygen Oximeter Phleb/o Vein Phlebitis Pulmon/o Lung Pulmonary Scler/o Hardening Sclerotherapy Thromb/o Clot Thrombus Valv/o, valvul/o Valve Valvular Vas/o Vessel Vasoconstriction Ven/o Vein Venotomy Venul/o Venule Venulitis Ventricul/o Ventricle Ventricular Prefix or Suffix What It Means Example Brady Slow Bradycardia Tachy Fast Tachycardia -graph Instrument used to record Electrocardiograph -graphy Process of recording Electrocardiography -gram Picture or finished record Electrocardiogram Check out this list of lymphatic roots and suffixes.

Let’s put your medical terminology expertise into practice by breaking down muscular root words into meanings and useful applications. The roots are essential medical terminology knowledge, because once you master these roots (good ol’ Greek and Latin ones, that is), you can break down any muscular-related word and discover its meaning.

So, for lack of a better medical terminology metaphor, prefixes and suffixes combined with root words are kind of like ova and sperm. Separately, they don’t make much sense. But together, they produce a whole new being. In this case, of course, it’s a word and not a baby. But they are cute, aren’t they? Here are some pertinent prefixes and suffixes.

Most common medical terms used today are derived from Latin or Greek. After all, the Greeks were the founders of modern medicine. Examples of medical terminology used today based on the Greek language are The word semantics is derived from the Greek semantikos, meaning “significant.” Coccyx comes from the Greek word for “cuckoo” -- it resembles a cuckoo’s beak.