Learning Medical Terms Now that you know how to analyze medical terms, it’s time to start learning what those word parts mean. Seeing them listed, defined, and used in a medical term is a great way to get started. But before you do, there are some other approaches you can and must take if you’re to learn and understand medical terminology. Suffixes A suffix is added to the end of a root to modify its meaning. You’ll remember that a medical term with a suffix usually describes a condition, an action, or a relationship. More technically, a suffix turns a medical term into a diagnosis, a medical procedure, or an adjective (usually an adjective that means “pertaining to” or “characteristic of”). If a suffix begins with a consonant, it’s usually added on to the combining vowel, as in carcinogenic. (CARCINO- or “cancer” plus - GENIC or “producing” equals “cancer producing.”) If a suffix begins with a vowel, that vowel takes the place of the combining vowel (usually “o”), as in bronchitis. (BRONCH- or “bronchial tubes” plus the aforementioned -ITIS equals “inflamed bronchial tubes.”) Some of these vowel suffixes stand in nicely for the combining vowel, since they begin with “o.” However, the most widely used vowel suffixes don’t and they’re easy to spot because they all begin with the same extremely popular vowel. Versatile Suffixes The letter i transforms many words from singular to plural. Many nouns ending in -US, like radius, bacillus, and octopus, become plural (radii, bacilli, octopi) by dropping the -US and adding -I. This letter becomes even more versatile when you add another letter to it. Add an “a” and you have the suffix -IA, meaning “pathological condition.” Since medicine exists because of pathological conditions, -IA is one of the most popular suffixes. The suffix -IA is also present in other common medical suffixes like ALGIA, or “pain.” You’ll recognize -IA in many suffixes where the “pathological condition” part of the suffix is assumed (pain, for instance, being a known pathological condition). Change the “a” in -IA to a “c” and you have -IC, which means “characteristic of.” A person who suffers from hypothermia (low body temperature) is hypothermic. Most -IA nouns can be thus transformed, but -IC also transforms other noun suffixes like -OSIS (condition of, to review) and -LEPSY (seizure or attack), often with the help of an intervening “t.” Thus, one suffering from psychosis (abnormal condition of mind) is psychotic, and one suffering from epilepsy (“disease of the nervous system marked by seizures”) is epileptic. Many of these -IC adjectives also function as nouns; one can have an epileptic (adjective) seizure and also be an epileptic (noun). The suffix -ICAL is usually just a four-letter way of saying -IC. Also consider the suffix -ID, meaning “body” or “particle.” Words like plasmid (a specialized ring of DNA) and chromatid (part of a chromosome strand) are an uncommon extension of the versatile “i” suffix. You’ll often encounter -INE, another suffix that means “relating to.” Equine means “relating to horses,” bovine to cows, and porcine to pigs. Since -INE also means “chemical substance,” many chemicals and medications end with it. Two suffixes resembling -IC and -INE are -IAC and -IAN, both of which mean “relating to” in such words as cardiac (relating to the heart) and avian (relating to birds). You can see by these two suffixes that not every suffix with “ia” in it denotes a disease. The suffix -ITE has many meanings. In medical terminology, you’ll most often encounter either its chemical or its biological meaning. Chemically, the suffix -ITE describes “salt or ester of an acid with a name ending in - OUS,” so nitrite is “a salt or ester of nitrous acid.” Biologically, -ITE means “segment of a body part,” as a dendrite is part of a nerve cell. But while dendritic means “characteristic of a part of a nerve cell,” most -ITIC words don’t derive from ITE. This brings us to our first four-letter “i” suffix, one you’ve already met because it’s a superstar of medical terminology: -ITIS. The suffix -ITIS means “inflammation,” is incredibly common. The adjective form, -ITIC (as in arthritic), means “characterized by inflammation” only when it comes from -ITIS. Other than arthritic, the adjective form of ITIS isn’t common, but beware of confusing it with words that derive from ITE. Diagnostic Suffixes Diagnostic suffixes tell us that something about the body isn’t the way it’s supposed to be. They may indicate an abundance or deficiency or a presence or absence. Occasionally, you’ll encounter a suffix like -PNEA, which refers only to a body process (“breathing”) and depends on a prefix like A- or DYS- to supply the diagnosis. Since -PNEA seems restricted by specific words diagnosing breathing problems, it’s included it here. Remember to pay special attention to the examples. *Study Diagnostic Suffixes and Procedural Suffixes chart Most of the adjectival suffixes mean one thing: “pertaining to.” Sometimes the context of the word makes a “pertaining to” suffix more a “characteristic of” suffix. The word plastic in medical terminology denotes “capability of being molded or developed” or “tending to build up tissues.” *Study Adjectival Suffixes chart Prefixes You’ve seen that many medical terms don’t require a prefix; they combine only a root and a suffix. But sometimes you need to know more than a root-suffix combination reveals. Prefixes tell us many things about the condition, procedure, or relationship expressed in our suffix. You’ve broken down these many things into two main subcategories: 1. prefixes that tell us more about what 2.those that tell us more about where “What” Prefixes Think of this first category of medical prefixes as the answers to questions attempting to quantify or qualify the condition, procedure, or relationship being described. How many? Too many? Too few? What percentage of the whole? Is it too fast? Too slow? Too big? Too small? What color is it? What does it do to something else? Think of “what” prefixes as the answers to a big medical press conference about the root and suffix in question. *Study Quantitative and Qualitative Prefixes. “Where” Prefixes The second category of prefixes asks only one question: Where? The body presents a vast array of locations, and medical professionals must be able to understand and describe a particular location or direction within it. Roots that denote body structures also, of course, describe locations, but medical language must often describe a site within or relative to a structure. Thus, you have locational prefixes, or prefixes whose function is to describe location or direction. *Study Locational Prefixes Key Points The best way to become fluent in any language is to immerse yourself in it. A suffix is a unit of meaning attached to the end of a word. Medical suffixes are usually diagnostic, procedural, and adjectival. A prefix is a unit of meaning attached to the front of a word. Medical prefixes are usually quantitative, qualitative, and locational.
