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.

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.

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.

There are a variety of ways to find out what’s going on with the endocrine system. So you had better get started learning the medical terminology necessary to understand what’s going on. Endocrine radiology and diagnostic tests That was quite a list of conditions and diseases, no? It would seem that the endocrine system has more potential conditions than Vegas has slot machines.

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.

Don’t get discouraged studying medical terminology. A large group of medical terms are notorious for being difficult to spell. These medical terms are commonly misspelled: Abscess, adolescence, alimentation, alopecia, Alzheimer, analyze, aneurysm, anorexia, arrhythmia, ascites, asphyxia, asystole, auscultation, callus, catheter, Caucasian, chickenpox, cirrhosis, curettage, decubitus, diabetes mellitus, diaphoresis, diaphragm, dilatation, diphtheria, eczema, effusion, elicit, epididymitis, fascia, flaccid, gallbladder, gangrene, gauge, gonorrhea, hemoptysis, hemorrhoid, humerus, hygiene, icterus, inoculate, intraocular, intussusception, ischemia, melanin, menstruation, oophorectomy, ophthalmology, orthopnea, pacemaker, palliative, palpate, palpitation, perineum, periosteum, peritoneum, peroneal, prosthesis, prostate, protocol, pruritus, rhythm, sagittal, sedentary, sequela, sieve, spleen, splenectomy, supersede, syncope, syphilis, tonsils, tonsillectomy, tricuspid, ventricle, vertical, and xiphoid.

The root of a word is its main part and core meaning. These common medical root words give you a general idea of what you’re dealing with or specify a body part. Abdomin/o: Abdomen Aden/o: Gland Anter/o: Front Arteri/o: Artery Audi/o: Hearing Bio: Life Brachi/o: Arm Bronch/i, bronch/o: Br