BIO 137 & 139: Human Anatomy & Physiology

* * *  Check out the tabs below for terms associated with specific body systems  * * *

Often, medical terminology is very technical in nature and requires extra effort to understand. When learning scientific words, you can generally divide terms into discrete parts. Once you become familiar with the meaning of word parts, you can understand the meaning of complex terms. 

For example, consider the following word:This word can be divided into smaller parts:

1. “Hypo-” is the prefix, or the small part that appears before the root word. The meaning of “hypo” is deficient, below, under, or less than normal.
2. The root word “therm” means heat. 
3. The suffix appears after the root word; “-ia” means a condition or state.

To understand the meaning of the word, first define the suffix, then the beginning of the word (prefix or root word), and finally the middle of the word (root word). In this case, hypothermia means (3) the condition of having (1) an abnormally low (2) body temperature. As you can see, once you become familiar with the meaning of word parts, it becomes much easier to decipher medical terminology. 

Also, keep in mind that while many medical terms contain all three word parts, others will contain varying combinations such as root/suffix, prefix/root, prefix/suffix, etc. Some words will even contain two roots, such as osteoarthritis (osteo = bone, arthr = joint).

Let's look at another example:

As you can see, even if you have never heard of the word “antibacterial,” the word parts provide clues that it is something that protects against bacteria. Therefore, it can be helpful to take into consideration the meaning of word parts, in addition to the context of the sentence or paragraph that the word is in, to decipher an unfamiliar word’s meaning.

Germanna Community College Academic Center for Excellence. (2020, December). Guide to Common Medical Terminology. https://www.germanna.edu/wp-content/uploads/guide_to_common_medical_terminology_010722.pdf