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.

You will need to know the medical terminology for the appendicular skeleton and joints in the body. How else will you be able to talk about bones and how they connect in a medical setting? Appendicular skeleton Think of the word appendage when your thoughts turn to the appendicular skeleton. These are your reachers, grabbers, and hoofers.

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.

Each individual part of the respiratory system is equally important. So, you will need to know the medical terminology associated with respiration. The nose without the pharynx or the lungs without the bronchi would be nothing more than spare parts, like on an old junker in a garage. Similarly, the parts of medical terms must coexist and work together to help you understand their meanings.

The body is not as solid a structure as it appears on the outside. It has five body cavities and medical terms to accompany them. Each cavity contains organs that are organized (no pun intended) in a neat and orderly fashion. The five body cavities include the following: The abdominal cavity contains the stomach, intestines, liver, spleen, gallbladder, pancreas, ureters, and kidneys.

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.

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.