Understanding medical terminology can help navigate medical appointments and advocate for oneself. Many terms are based on Greek and Latin roots, and prefixes and suffixes can provide clues to the meaning of a word. Acronyms are also commonly used, and patients should not hesitate to ask for clarification. Flashcards or a medical dictionary can be helpful for further study.
Medical terminology can get very confusing for people who are not members of the medical field. Having an understanding of some commonly used medical terms can be helpful when it comes to navigating medical appointments and advocating for yourself or others. However, it’s important to remember that doctors have been in school for a long time and acquire a large vocabulary along the way, so patients should never be afraid to ask a doctor to clarify a term.
Much medical terminology is based on Greek and Latin, so becoming familiar with some commonly used Greek and Latin roots helps you understand the meaning of a word by breaking it down into its component parts. Even if you don’t know the roots specifically, you may be able to figure out the meaning of a word by thinking of similar English words, because these roots are shared with the English language. For example, if you don’t know the meaning of the word “quadriplegia,” you might infer that it refers to something with “four,” since “quad-” is a commonly used prefix meaning “four.” ”
Prefixes like endo-, intra-, inter- and peri- all have to do with the location of something, in this case “in”, “within”, “between” and “around”. If a word has one of these prefixes, it tells you where the problem is, such as in the “pneum,” or lung. If the problem is located in the heart, doctors will use the term “cardi”, while “stomat” refers to the mouth, “trachea” to the trachea, “gastro” to the stomach and intestinal tract, “renal” to the kidneys, “phleb ” for veins, “hem” or “hemat” for blood, “neuro” for nerves, “angio” for vessels and “arthro” for joints. Thus, a word that begins with “endocardium-” refers to something that takes place inside the heart.
Medical suffixes such as -algia, -itis, -plegia and -osis all describe specific problems. An “-algia” is pain, as in “neuralgia” for “nerve pain”, while an “-itis” is a form of inflammation, as in “arthritis”, an inflammation of the joints, and “-plegia” is paralysis. “-osis” is an anomaly, while a “-pathy” is a disease, as in “cardioneuropathy,” a disease affecting the heart and nervous system.
You may also hear suffixes like “-somnia,” which alerts you that the problem is with your sleep, and “-rrhage” for an unusual discharge, or “-rhea” for a loose flow. Prefixes such as “hypo”, “hyper”, “tachy” and “brady” describe specific qualities of the condition, in this case “too little”, “too much”, “too fast” and “too slow”. So, someone with “bradycardia” has a slow heartbeat, while someone with “hyperthermia” has a temperature that’s too high.
Other medical terms describe actions that might be taken. A “-gram” is a medical image, such as an “angiogram” of blood vessels, while a “-scopy” is a look inside the body with a camera. An “-ectomy” involves cutting something out of the body, while an “-ostomy” is a hole made in the body, and an “-otomy” is a surgical procedure that involves cutting or opening, but no removal of tissue.
Doctors are also big fans of using acronyms, such as “BP” for “blood pressure,” “BID” for “twice a day,” or “ETOH” for “ethanol,” better known to most patients as “ alcohol”. When doctors start throwing acronyms around, patients shouldn’t hesitate to speak up and ask for clarification, as there are thousands of acronyms in regular use in the medical community.
This little introduction to medical terminology is a step in the right direction, but if you really want to study medical terminology, you might want to consider purchasing a set of medical cards or a medical dictionary. Flashcards are especially useful because they provide a short definition of the term and are easy to carry around the studio.
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