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.

Once you know the specific parts of the integumentary system, it’s time to put your medical terminology expertise into practice by tracking down the meaning of root words and checking out their 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 hair/skin/nail/gland-related word and discover its meaning.

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.

A lot of players work together in the gastrointestinal tract. The good news, with regard to medical terminology and word building, is that the list of prefixes and suffixes is a lot less complicated than those of other large systems. The prefixes and suffixes you find here will help you keep all the body parts, ailments, and procedures straight.

Just as in a math problem, you can add up the parts of a medical term and get one coherent answer, one complete meaning. Here’s one example to get you started: Break the word gastroenterologist into root words and suffixes: gastroenterologist = gastro + entero + logist Look at the suffix first: -logist says this is a person, the physician.

Get ready. The sensory systems use a lot of medical terminology, including root words, prefixes, and suffixes, and with good reason. Consider that this set of systems includes some delicate and sophisticated body parts: eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and skin. It’s no wonder that you need a lot of combining forms and roots to fully describe the wonders of the senses.

It’s time to familiarize yourself with medical terminology for the nervous system. It’s hard to believe the brain and spinal cord hold so much responsibility for the way your entire body functions. And like a supercomputer, one small glitch in how the neurons fire or how the messages are sent down the spinal cord can make the difference between, say, walking and being confined to a wheelchair.