hello and welcome to this lecture on introduction to medical terminology this is dr stewart and i'll be guiding you through this topic so let's get started when you look at medical terms you may think you're looking at another language in fact you often are many medical terms are made of greek and latin parts to help you understand this new language you need to learn the basic rules for building terms knowing how to put words together and build them from their parts is a lot like completing a puzzle or playing with legos there are thousands of medical terms and it is nearly impossible to memorize all of them a better approach is to learn the various word parts and know how to analyze them we will study four word parts in this course word roots combining vowels prefixes and suffixes in general the word parts introduced on the previous slide are used to make a medical term the word root is the fundamental meaning of the term prefixes and suffixes modify the word root combining vowels are placed between word parts to make medical terms easier to pronounce while these are the basic rules for using word parts remember that there are always exceptions to every rule we will discuss these as we come to them to help you get a sense of the word parts let's look at some examples of how medical terms are built we will use the same root for each term pay attention to the ways the different parts change this root cardi is the word root in the term cardiogram a cardiogram is a record of the heart notice that the word root is the foundation of this term peri is the prefix in the term pericardium pericardium means around the heart you can see here that the prefix is found at the beginning of the word itis is the suffix in the term carditis which means inflammation of the heart as this term shows the suffix is found at the end of the word finally the combining vowel is a vowel that links the word root to another word root or to a suffix in most cases the combining vowel is an o in the term cardiomyopathy there are two combining vowels the first is between the word root cardi and the word root my the second is between the word root my and the suffix pathy cardiomyopathy is disease of the heart muscle as you saw in our examples the word root is the foundation of a term and it gives you a sense of the term's meaning in many cases the word root refers to a body system or body part for example cardi means heart in other cases the word root describes an action the root cis for example means to cut some medical terms such as osteoarthritis may have more than one word root osti and arthra are the word roots in this term there is also a combining vowel o and the suffix itis not every medical term has a word root however for example hyper is a prefix that means excessive and trophy is a suffix that means development these two word root parts can be combined to make the term hypertrophy which means excessive development another word part the combining vowel makes it easier to pronounce long medical terms in most cases the combining vowel is an o but it can also be an i or an a the combining vowel is used between certain word parts in certain situations specifically you will find the combining vowel between two word roots in between a word root and a suffix that begins with a consonant to decide whether to use a combining vowel between a word root and a suffix look at the suffix first if the suffix begins with a vowel the combining vowel is not used for example when combining the word root arthur with the suffix itis we say arthritis without the combining vowel not arthroidis with the combining vowel when the suffix begins with a consonant on the other hand a combining vowel is used when combining the word root arthra with the suffix scope we say arthroscope with the combining vowel not arthroscope without the combining vowel combining vowels are typically used between two word roots even if the second word root begins with a vowel for example we say gastroenteritis with the combining vowel not gastroenteritis without the combining vowel when writing a word root by itself the combining form is typically used the combining form is the word root plus the combining vowel and it is written as the word root followed by a forward slash followed by the combining vowel for example cardi o arthur slash this screen and the two that follow it introduce some common combining forms bio means life carcino means cancer cardio means heart chemo refers to chemical ciso or cyso means to cut dermato refers to the skin interro refers to the small intestine and gastro is about the stomach typically during a lecture i will introduce the specific word lists and what they might be trying to show you i might read the first slide of a lecture and on subsequent slides i may read you the medical term itself but not mention exactly what the definition is as it'll be printed on the slide for you period this will save a little bit of time in the lecture but also it is most important for you to hear the correct pronunciation of the medical terminology itself here so make sure that you are paying attention to not only the pronunciation but also the spelling also what form we're looking at if it's a root word a prefix suffix or a combining form and then lastly the actual meaning gyneco hemato immuno luringo or lorenzo nephro nero ophthalmo oto or auto patho pulmonaut rhino to remember that rhino means nose it may help to think of the horn on a rhinoceros's nose a prefix is a word part that is added to the beginning of a term the prefix may describe the location of an organ for example the prefix sub means below the prefix can also describe the number of parts for example the prefix mono means one finally the prefix may tell us time as in frequency the prefix post for example means after while many medical terms do have a prefix not all of them have a prefix when a prefix is written by itself it is followed by a hyphen for example intra hyphen hyper hyphen multi hyphen the next few slides list some common prefixes and their definitions these are very important to learn as you will see them over and over again for this first slide i'll read out the prefix and its corresponding definition on subsequent slides i'll just read out the prefix so you can focus in on its pronunciation a or ah without an without anti or anti against auto self brady slow d or d without dis means painful difficult or abnormal an example of the term using the prefix dis is dyspnea the medical term means difficulty breathing endo epi you x extra hetero means different an example of a medical term using the prefix hetero is heterographed this medical term means a skin graft from another species homo hyper hypo in enter intra macro micro neo an example of a medical term using the prefix neo which means new is neonatology the medical term means study of the newborn para per peri post pre pro pseudo an example of a medical term using the prefix pseudo which means false is pseudosciences pseudosciences means false pregnancy re retro sub tacky trans ultra un the number prefixes are as follows by equals two hemi refers to half an example of a medical term using the prefix hemi is hemiplegia which means paralysis on one half either the right or the left side of the body mono is one multi mini nully none pan all paulie many quadri four semi partial or half tetra four try three a suffix is found at the end of a term and adds meaning for example some suffixes refer to a condition the suffix alga is such a suffix and it means pain other suffixes describe a disease the suffix itis is an example of this and it refers to inflammation a suffix may also give information about a procedure the suffix ectomy for example means surgical removal all medical terms must include a suffix it is the only mandatory word part this is the one rule of medical terminology that can never be broken anytime a suffix is written by itself it is preceded by a hyphen as you can see in these examples hyphen logee hyphen sclerosis hyphen site the next few slides list some common suffixes algae seal site dynia ectasis or ectasis ism itis means inflammation an example of a medical term using the suffix itis is esophagitis this means inflammation of the esophagus logist malaysia meaning abnormal softening an example of a medical term using the suffix malaysia is chondromalacia this medical term means abnormal cartilage softening megaly oma opsi osis pathy plasm plegia ptosis raj raja which means rupture an example of a medical term using the suffix rexus is historexis this term means ruptured uterus sclerosis stenosis therapy trophy some suffixes are used to change a word root into a complete word these suffixes share a single meaning pertaining to the new word created by combining these adjective subfixes with a root can then be used to modify another word let's look at an example of how adjective suffixes work to state that a patient has an ulcer in his or her stomach the root gastro which means stomach is combined with the suffix ic which means pertaining to this creates the word gastric which means pertaining to the stomach if you place the word gastric in front of the word ulcer you have gastric ulcer which means an ulcer found in the stomach here is the list of adjective suffixes ack owl and are nick you might be thinking to yourself well i don't agree with the pronunciation of the suffixes that he's making well it could be that when we add these suffixes on to the end of words often the combination of the different word parts changes the flow of how we say a word and ultimately how we may pronounce particular parts so at this point don't try to focus too much on how a suffix for example may be pronounced when it's just sitting on a page with a hyphen in front of it pay more attention to how it would be pronounced when it's added onto a word to create further complex layers of meaning that's really our aim here still other suffixes indicate surgical procedures these suffixes include the following synthesis ectomy ostomy automay pexy plasti rafi tome there are also suffixes that indicate procedures or instruments they include graham graphy meter metry scope scopic scopy now that you know the different word parts some examples of those word parts and the rules about combining word parts you can begin building medical terms word building involves putting together two or more word parts to make a variety of new terms to begin building medical terms you must know the meanings of the word parts and understand how to choose the parts that convey the right meaning while doing so you must remember the rules related to the location of each word part let's look at building a word suppose you have the prefix hypo which means below or under next you have the combining form dermo which means skin finally you have the adjective suffix ik which means pertaining to when you combine these three word parts they form the medical term hypodermic which means pertaining to under the skin once you understand word building you'll be able to both build and interpret medical terms for example let's look at the medical term gastroenterology the first thing you need to do to interpret this term is divide it into its word parts as shown on the slide now that you have divided gastroenterology into its word parts let's define them gastro stomach o is a combining vowel enter means small intestine o again is a combining vowel and low g means study of when you combine the meanings of the word parts to create a definition you begin with the suffix and then move to the beginning of the term in this case you get the study of the stomach and the small intestine now let's discuss the pronunciation of medical terms the way that a medical term is pronounced differs depending on where the person using the term was born and where they were educated for example some people say centimeter and others will say centimeter the key thing to remember is that no matter how a medical term is pronounced it must always be spelled the same way when someone's pronunciation leaves you in doubt ask for the spelling to help you learn pronunciation of new terms look for words in your book that are in boldface type followed by a phonetic spelling in parentheses in these phonetic spellings the stressed syllable is capitalized as shown in the example on the slide using the word pericarditis if you are working through these lectures without a book there are many options online nowadays where you can go find a term see what it means and often there is a little arrow that you can click that will play for you the pronunciation of that particular term remember there is only one correct way to spell a medical term changing even one letter can change the meaning of the entire item for example the word abduction means moving away if you change that b to a d you get adduction which means moving toward in another example the word ilium with an e means small intestine if you change the e to an i you get the term for the hip bone the spelling process is complicated by several series of letters that sound the same but are spelled differently for example two series of letters sound like psi p s y as in psychiatry and c y as in cytology similarly two series of the letters sound like dis d-y-s as in dyspepsia and d-i-s as in dislocation many medical terms originate from greek and latin words as a result some singular and plural endings and medical terms are very different from those seen in the english language latin and greek rules for making terms plural differ from english rules for example the plural of atrium is atria some medical terms however do follow the english rules for plurals for example the plural of ventricle is ventricles we will spend a few minutes reviewing the general rules for plurals there are many rules and they are diverse so it's a good idea to do some further review on your own for words ending in a add an e to the end of the word therefore vertebra becomes vertebrae for those words ending in acts change the x to a c and add an e s therefore thorax becomes thoracies for words ending in x or x the ending becomes ises the appendix becomes appendices for words ending in is change the is to es so metastasis becomes metastases for those ending in ma add ta to the end of the word for example sarcoma is sarcomata when made plural for words ending in in x the x becomes g and you add an es therefore phalanx becomes phalanges for words ending in o n the o n is dropped and an a is added for example ganglion changes to ganglia for words ending in um the um is dropped and an a is added this makes ovum into ova for those words ending in u.s the u.s is dropped and we add an i for example nucleus becomes nuclei and for words ending in y the english rule is followed we change the y to an i and add es therefore we get from biopsy biopsies abbreviations are commonly used in medical fields to save time but they can be confusing anytime that you are worried about confusion related to an abbreviation you should spell out the term in fact this confusion can be deadly at times so some facilities have even made a list of approved abbreviations other abbreviations can't be used when using abbreviations you must adhere to this list the most important thing to remember however is that you must never use your own abbreviations congratulations you've reached the end of the lecture be sure to watch any additional lectures on this topic that may follow and of course you are able to return to this lecture anytime you may need a refresher until then thanks for watching