Medical Terminology Made Easy: Animated Guide

Welcome to medical terminology! Today we'll learn how medical words are built from smaller parts.Medical terms are made up of three main components: prefixes, roots, and suffixes.The prefix comes at the beginning and modifies the meaning of the word.The root is the core of the word, carrying its main meaning.The suffix comes at the end and often describes an action, condition, or procedure.Let's look at an example: the word cardiology. We'll break it down into its parts.Cardio is our root word, meaning heart.And logy is our suffix, meaning the study of.When we put these parts together, we get cardiology - the study of the heart.This pattern of combining word parts is the foundation of medical terminology.Medical prefixes modify the meaning of terms by adding information at the beginning.Let's look at some more essential prefixes used in medical terminology.Medical suffixes typically indicate the type of condition, procedure, or state.Here are more common suffixes that you'll encounter in medical terms.Let's break down some complex medical terms into their component parts.Gastroenterology can be divided into three parts: gastro, meaning stomach, entero, meaning intestine, and logy, meaning the study of.Together, these parts tell us that gastroenterology is the study of the stomach and intestines.Let's look at another example: dermatitis.Dermatitis breaks down into dermat, meaning skin, and itis, meaning inflammation.Now let's examine nephrology.Nephrology combines nephro, meaning kidney, with logy, the study of.For our final example, let's decode cardiopathy.Cardiopathy breaks down into cardio, relating to the heart, and pathy, meaning disease.So cardiopathy literally means heart disease.