Have you or any member of your family ever been to the doctor and he/she blurted out some big, all the letters in the alphabet, for you?

I am here to help you learn how to take that medical word apart in a way that you would easily understand.

Lets face it, we all have or will have heath issuses or concerns, and we need to comprehend just what exactly is going on with our bodies.

Lesson 1

We need to divide these words into parts. Most medical words are formed using the following :

A prefix- found at the beginning of the word, please keep in mind that not all medical words have prefixes

A root - found usually in the middle and is the heart of the word

A suffix- found at the end of the word

A combining vowel (usually an o) - used to bind the root to the suffix or to another root.

Let me demonstrate.

You go to the doctor and you tell him you have stomach pains. you point to the upper region of your belly. The doctor then examines you and concludes that you are having EPIGASTRIC symptoms.

You hear the word EPIGASTRIC and think "OMG, what is that?" Let us both discover just exactly what that is .

Let's break this up. Remember a prefix is at the beginning of a word. In this case, EPI is our prefix, and it means ABOVE or UPPER (REGION)

Next, right there in the middle is our root, GASTR, which means STOMACH.

And last at the end, we have IC, which means PERTAINING TO.

Now you understand that you are having pains that pertain to the upper region of your stomach. Easy right !!!

Let's try another. Remember I told you that not all medical words have prefixes?

So after the doctor runs a series of tests, don't get nervous now!, he tells you that you have GASTROENTERITIS. You are ready to hit the roof, because you thought epigastric was bad enough. This is too much of a big word, it must be very serious. Take a closer look at it. It contains a part that you already know the meaning of. There is an 'o' in there. Could that be a combining vowel? Definitely so. But what does the rest of it mean?

Let's break this word apart .

If you are on track, you will notice that there is NO prefix here.What we have here is:

A root - GASTR - meaning stomach

A combining vowel - 'o' - that joins

Another root - ENTER - meaning intestine

And a suffix - ITIS - meaning inflammation. Now remember this one because you will see and here it alot. Maybe you have heard of arthritis, gastritis, otitis media, hepatitis, etc. They all mean inflammation of something.

We now have a clearer understanding of how to take medical words apart. That said, now we need to learn the meannings of the prefixes, roots, and suffixes. On we go to lesson 2.

Lesson 2

Once you know what a particular prefix, root and suffix means, it is much easier to break a word down or put a word together. In this lesson, I will give you the meanings to some common prefixes, suffixes and roots. I need you to be diligent and learn these, because there may be a test somewhere down the road! You will also see how combining vowels are used to make combining forms, which is simply a combination of a root and a combining vowel. We will start with the prefixes,as some have just popped into mind.

Prefixes

a-, an- = no, not, without. Eg. anemia which means without blood, or no blood

auto- = self. Eg. autobiography which means about oneself, or autopsy which is 'to see for yourself '. It is the examination of a dead body with one's own eyes. Get it !

re- = back,again,backward. Eg. resection which is the removal, or cutting back of an organ or tissue

in- = in, into. Eg. incision which is to cut into

hyper = above, excessive, too much of, more than the normal. Eg. hyperglycemia which is too much, or excess, or above normal amounts of sugar in the blood.

hypo = below, too little, under, deficient in. Eg. hypodermic (needle) which means under or below the skin. Hypoglycemia which is too little, or a deficiency of sugar in the blood.

endo = within. Eg. endoscope which is an instrument used to look within an organ or structure

exo = out, outward. Eg. exocrine glands which are glands in the body that secrete their substances out, or outside of the body, like the sweat glands. Exophthalmos which is the protrusion of the eyeballs outward, like that seen in Graves disease.

peri = aroud, surrounding. Eg. Peritoneum which is the membrane surrounding the organs of the abdomen. Perimeter of a circle, the distance around the circle.

pro = foward, before. Eg. prognosis which is a prediction made before study and tests.

Roots and combining forms.

Notice that the /o is used as a combining vowel to link the root word encephal to the suffix gram forming a combining form.

encephal/o = brain. Eg. electroencephalogram which is a record of the elecrical activity in the brain.

carcin/o = cancerous, cancer causing. Eg. carcinoma which is a growth or tumor that is cancerous or can cause cancer. Carcinogen which is an agent that causes cancer.

gynec/o = female, woman. Eg. gynecomastia which is the presence of female breasts in a male. Tough concept right? or gynecology which is the study of the female body and reproductive organs.

rhin/o = nose. (hmm, go figure!!) Eg. rhinoplasty which is surgical ( plastic) repair of the nose

hemat/o , hem/o = blood. Eg. hematoma which is a collection of blood like a blood clot. Hemoglobin which is a protein that helps carry oxygen in the blood. The oxygen molecule attaches itself onto the hemoglobin.

Suffixes.

algia = pain. Eg. Myalgia (fibro myalgia) which is pain in the muscles

itis = inflammation. Eg. colitis which is inflammation of the colon or large intestine, conjunctivitis which is inflammation of the conjunctiva of the eye (pinkeye)

ectomy = the removal of, excision. Eg. mastectomy which is the removal of or excision of the breast

scopy = to visually examine. Eg. laryngoscopy which is the visual examination of the larynx or voice box

pathy = condition of disease, diseased. Eg. osteopathy which is the condition of disease in the bones.

I have just given you a very minimal amount of these words. I can go on and on but I want you to experiment with what I have just taught you. Your homework is to find as many medical words as you can and try to break them up into prefix, root, combining vowel and suffix, keeping in mind that not all medical words have prefixes. After you have done that, i want you to experiment with making up your own words. You will see how fun and easy it is! You may not know the meanings of most of these words but I have a vocabulary lesson planned for you coming up next.

Lesson 3

In this lesson, we are going to learn the medical terms for different parts of the body. I will break it down by body systems.

The digestive system.

Mouth - stomat/o, or/o

Cheek - bucc/o

Lip - cheil/o, labi/o

Face - faci/o

Gums - gingiv/o

Tooth - dent/i, odont/o

Tongue - gloss/o, lingu/o

Palate - palat/o

Mandible,lower jaw - mandibul/o

Throat - pharyng/o

Esophagus - esophag/o

Stomach - gastr/o

Small Intestine - enter/o,consists of the duodenum, duoden/o, the jejunum, jejun/o and the ileum, ile/o

Liver - hepat/o

Gall Bladder - chol/e, bil/i

Pancreas - pancreat/o

Cecum - cec/o

Large Intestine, colon - col/o,colon/o

Sigmoid colon - sigmoid/o

Rectum - rect/o

Anus - an/o

Rectum and anus - proct/o

Miscellaneous.

Abdomen,belly - lapar/o, celi/o

Peritoneum - peritone/o

Pyloric sphincter - pylor/o

Salivary gland - sialaden/o

Larynx, voice box - laryng/o

Appendix - append/o, appendic/o

The urinary system.

Urinary bladder - cyst/o, vesic/o

Kidney - nephr/o, ren/o

Renal pelvis - pyel/o

Glomerulus - glomerul/o

Ureter - ureter/o

Urethra - urethr/o

Stone - lith/o

Urine - ur/o, urin/o, uria

Miscellaneous

Scanty - olig/o

Pus - py/o

Night - noct/i

Excessive - poly

The female reproductive system

Cervix - cervic/o

Vulva - episi/o

Milk - galact/o, lact/o

Amnion - amni/o

Woman, female - gynec/o

Uterus,womb - hyster/o,uter/o

Breast - mamm/o, mast/o

Midwife - obstetr/o

Birth - nat/i, parturition(act of giving birth)

Menstruation, menses, periods - men/o

Egg - ov/o,o/o, ovul/o

Ovary - ovari/o, oophor/o

Muscle - my/o

To bear - phor/o, -parous

Fallopian tubes - salping/o

Uterine tube - -salpinx

Vagina - vagin/o

Perineum - perine/o

Vulva - vulv/o

Pregnancy - -gravida, -cyesis, gestation

Beginning - -arche

Discharge - -rrhea

Labor,birth - -tocia

To turn - -version

Painful - dys

Many - multi-

None - nulli-

First - primi-

The male reproductive system

Male - andr/o

Hidden - crypt/o

Vas deferens - vas/o

Testes,testicle - orch/o, orchi/o, orchid/o, test/o

Semen - semin/i

Seed - gon/o

Epididymis - epididym/o

Prostate gland - prostat/o

Penis - balan/o

Sperm - sperm/o, spermat/o

The respiratory system

Bronchus - bronch/o, bronch/i

Lung, air - pneum/o, pneumon/o, pulmon/o

Nose - nas/o, rhin/o

Epiglottis - epiglott/o

Larynx, voice box - laryng/o

Lobe of the lung - lob/o

Blue - cyan/o

Carbon dioxide - capn/o

Alveolus, air sac - alveol/o

Sinus - sinus/o

Breathing - spir/o, -pnea

Mediastinum - mediastin/o

Oxygen - ox/o

Pleura - pleur/o

Diaphragm - phren/o

Ribs - cost/o

Throat, pharynx - pharyng/o

Chest - pector/o, thorac/o, - thorax

Tonsils - tonsill/o

Trachea, windpipe - trache/o

The cardiovascular system

Artery - arter/o, arteri/o

Vein - ven/o, ven/i, phleb/o

Heart - coron/o, cardi/o

Ventricle - ventricul/o

Pericardium - pericardi/o

Mucus - myx/o

Clot - thromb/o

Vessel - angi/o, vas/o, vascul/o

The nervous system

Brain - encephal/o

Spinal cord - myel/o

Nerve - neur/o

Voice - phon/o