Contents

Cover

Half Title page

Title page

Copyright page

Dedication

To the Reader

What This Book Is and Who It’s For

How to Use This Program

Objectives of the Program

Pronunciation Key

The Word-Building Strategy

List of Illustrations

Chapter 1: Basic Word Roots and Common Suffixes

Chapter 1 Self-Test

Chapter 2: More Word Roots, Suffixes, and Prefixes

Chapter 2 Self-Test

Chapter 3: Basic Anatomical Terms and Abnormal Conditions

Chapter 3 Self-Test

Chapter 4: The Genitals and the Urinary Tract

Chapter 4 Self-Test

Chapter 5: The Gastrointestinal Tract

Chapter 5 Self-Test

Chapter 6: The Heart

Chapter 6 Self-Test

Chapter 7: Symptoms, Diagnoses, Treatments, Communication Qualifiers, and Statistics

Signs and Symptoms

Vital Signs

Color and Other Signs

Qualifiers

Other Signs

Subjective Symptoms

Describing Illness

Treatment

Statistics

Chapter 7: Self-Test

Chapter 8: Growth and Devlopment, and Body Orientation

Growth and Development

Growths and Other Abnormal Tissues

Orientation

Chapter 8 Self-Test

Chapter 9: Gynecology, Pregnancy, and Childbirth

Terms of Gynecology

Pregnancy and Childbirth

Labor and Delivery

Chapter 9 Self-Test

Chapter 10: The Eye

The Eye

Chapter 10 Self-Test

Chapter 11: The Respiratory Tract

Chapter 11 Self-Test

Review by Body System Assessment

Review Sheets by Chapter

Final Self-Test I

Final Self-Test II

Appendix A: Medical Abbreviations

Appendix B: Forming Plurals

Appendix C: Medical Measurements

Index of Words and Word Parts

Wiley End User License Agreement

Quick Medical Terminology

Copyright © 2003 by Shirley Steiner. Copyright © 2011 by Shirley Steiner and Natalie Capps.
All rights reserved

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey
Published simultaneously in Canada

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600, or on the web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http:/www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and the author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.

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ISBN 978-0-470-88619-9 (paper); ISBN 978-1-118-06373-6 (ebk);
ISBN 978-1-118-06374-3 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-06375-0 (ebk)

For

Dorothy Elizabeth Wilson Soltesz, who is my mom and best friend.

Mildred Hall, who is my godmother and may not know how much she influenced my growing-up years. Mildred assured me I had what it takes to go to college, get an education, and create a better life.

—S. S.

For

My perfect mate, Barry, and remarkable children, Harden, Pate, and Jacqueline Capps

My parents and sisters, who shaped me:

Susie Ashworth, Nick Pate, Amy Bean, and Molly Pate

With affection, gratitude, and adoration for you all.

—N. C.

To the Reader

What This Book Is and Who It’s For

So you want to learn the language of medicine. Great! Everything you need for learning medical terminology is right in your hands. The language of medicine is precise and technically oriented. It is among the great tools of the mind for better understanding and more accurate communication between all practitioners of the life sciences. Learning this special language is your opportunity to be among them. Quick Medical Terminology can prepare you for a new job or even a new career in one of the nation’s fastest growing job markets, health care and allied health services.

In Quick Medical Terminology you’ll learn to pronounce, spell, and define medical terms used in today’s health care settings. You will use a word-building strategy that helps you discover connections and relationships among word roots, prefixes, and suffixes. You’ll learn the meaning of each part of a complex medical term and be able to put the parts together and define the term. Very quickly you’ll develop a large repertoire of useful medical terms, much greater than the 500-plus terms presented in this text.

Beginning with Chapter 4, most of the medical terms in each chapter will focus on a particular part of the body. Grouping related terms in this way will hel you learn them better. However, the order of the chapters should not be confused with the order of a standard head-to-toe medical evaluation. At the end of the book, there is a Review by Body System Assessment that will walk you through the standard head-to-toe examination medical professionals typically follow. This review will bring together the medical terminology you will learn in the rest of the book.

Quick Medical Terminology is an enjoyable way to learn the very special language of medicine by yourself, at your own pace. If you speak and understand English and have a high school education or equivalent, you’ll quickly learn the basics and much more.

How to Use This Program

We suggest you use the following steps to approach your learning.

Step 1. Pre- and Post-Testing

If it’s worth learning, isn’t it worth knowing you have succeeded? You will find two Final Self-Tests in the back of your guide. We suggest you take one test before you begin your study and take another after you have completed all your lessons. Pre- and post-testing shows you how much you have learned. Either one of the final tests may be used first.

Step 2. Self-Instructional Chapter

This self-teaching guide lets you proceed at a pace that is right for you. It provides everything you need to complete each of the eleven instructional chapters, which include:

Introduction and Mini-Glossary. The first page of each chapter introduces you to what you will cover and provides a Mini-Glossary of the terms and word parts you’ll be learning. You may want to refer to it as you proceed through the lesson.

Numbered frames. Numbered frames are the building blocks of each chapter. A frame presents a small amount of information and expects you to read and think about that information. Then it asks you to respond to it.

The way you respond may be:

• to select a medical term or definition from a list of suggested answers.
• to write a medical term for a given definition.
• to draw a conclusion and write it in your own words.

Example

Emesis is a term that means vomiting. A term that means excessive vomiting is hyperemesis. Underline the part of the medical term meaning excessive.

A gallbladder attack can cause excessive vomiting. Write the term that describes this unpleasant condition.______________________

Example

Myelo / dysplasia means defective development of the spinal cord.

Chondro means cartilage. What does chondro / dysplasia mean?___________

Answers. As you work through the chapter, you’ll find the correct answers on the left-hand side of the page. It’s a good idea to use a folded piece of paper to cover the answer until you give your own. Your answer will be correct most of the time, but when your answer doesn’t match ours, be sure you know why it doesn’t. You may need to go back and review a few frames before continuing.

Pronunciation Guide. When you work with a medical term for the first time, the answer column guides your pronunciation of the new term. Take the opportunity to practice pronouncing each new term correctly several times. Say it aloud or subverbally (saying it to yourself).

Example
chondrodysplasia (kon’dro dis pla’zhe)

Review Exercises. Some chapters are longer than others, so to help you plan your breaks, we designed several short learning sequences into each chapter. A brief Review Exercise occurs at the end of a learning sequence. If you need a break, stop after a Review Exercise. Proceed at a pace that is right for you. We urge you to complete an entire chapter before calling it a day.

Summary Exercise. Each of the eleven instructional chapters ends with a Summary Exercise. This final exercise pulls together all the new terms you worked with in the chapter. Using the pronunciation guide alongside each term in the list, take the opportunity to practice pronouncing each term correctly and defining it aloud or subverbally. It really works! You might ask a friend to pronounce each term in the list so you can practice spelling it when you hear it.

[This is a good classroom exercise for instructor-guided spelling practice, pronunciation practice, and defining the terms.]

Chapter Self-Test. Each chapter ends with a Self-Test in two parts. Part 1 asks you to match a list of definitions with the correct medical terms. Part 2 asks you to construct the correct medical term for each definition listed. All terms and definitions are covered in the instructional chapter you have just completed. Here’s another opportunity to see how you’re doing.

Step 3. Chapter Review Sheet

Beginning on page 261, you’ll find a two-part Review Sheet for each of the eleven chapters of instruction that make up this self-teaching program. We suggest you begin every new chapter (beginning with Chapter 2) by completing a Review Sheet for the previous chapter. These exercises are an important part of the learning program and will help you recall and practice the terms and definitions of the preceding chapter before you begin the next one.

Part 1: Given a term, or word part, write the meaning.

Part 2: Given the definition of a term, write the correct term.

Correct answers are provided.

You may use these Review Sheets anytime, and as often as you wish. We suggest you make several photocopies of each Review Sheet and use them at any time to practice what you’ve already covered. There is never enough practice.

Objectives of the Program

When you have finished Quick Medical Terminology, you will have formed well over 500 medical terms using our word-building strategy combining prefixes, suffixes, and word roots to create complex medical terms.

Pronunciation Key

The primary stress mark (’) is placed after the syllable bearing the heavier stress or accent; the secondary stress mark (’) follows a syllable having a somewhat lighter stress, as in com·men·da·tion .

Source: Slightly modified “Pronunciation Key” in Funk & Wagnalls Standard College Dictionary. Copyright © 1977 by Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.

The schwa varies widely in quality from a sound close to the (u) in up to a sound close to the (i) in it as heard in pronunciations of such words as ballot, custom, landed, horses.

The (r) in final position as in star (stär) and before a consonant as in heart (härt) is regularly indicated in the respellings, but pronunciations without (r) are unquestionably reputable. Standard British is much like the speech of Eastern New England and the Lower South in this feature.

In a few words, such as button (but’n) and sudden (sud’n), no vowel appears in the unstressed syllable because the (n) constitutes the whole syllable.

The Word-Building Strategy

Quick Medical Terminology teaches you a strategy for word-building. The vocabulary of medicine is large and complex, but you can learn much of it by breaking down a complex term into its meaningful parts and putting together a word from those meaningful parts. Cover the column on the left and check your answers when you are done. Let’s begin.

	1. All words have a word root. The root is the base or the foundation of the word, regardless of what other word, unit, or syllable may be attached to it.
	For example: do is the root of undo and doing.
port	What is the root of import, export, transport, and support? ____________________
root	2. In this example, the words suffix, prefix, affix, and fixation have fix as their _________________________.
3. What is the root in tonsill/itis, tonsill/ectomy, and tonsill/ar? _________________________
	4. Two or more words may be combined to form a meaningful compound word. Using two or more of the following words, create some meaningful compound words:

Some suggestions:	over	stand
overhang	hang	wear
overcome	under	come
understand	grand	out
grandstand
outcome,
etc.

yes Two words are combined to make a meaningful compound term.	5. Is teaspoon a compound word? ___________ Explain your answer. ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________
micr tel micr/o tel/e	6. A word root and a whole word may form a compound word. But the root must be in its combining form. The root plus a vowel (a, e, i, o, u) make the combining form. Here are two compound terms, micr/o/scope and tel/e/cast.
	What are the word roots?___________________________
	What are the combining forms?________________________
	7. Underline the combining form in each of the following words:

phon/o/graph gastr/o/enteric laryng/o/spasm

phon/o/graph laryng/o/spasm

gastr/o/enter/ic

a word root plus a vowel (a, e, i, o, u)	8. The combining form in compound words is made up of a _________________________ plus a _________________________.
	9. In tel/e/graph and tel/e/phone the root plus a vowel are necessary to make these compound words. What is this special form called?
a combining form	_________________________ _____________
	10. Compound terms may be composed of which of the following? a) two or more whole words b) a whole word and a word root c) a word root combining form and a word
all three	Your answer? _________________________
combining form	11. Two roots may join together but one of them will be in a special form called the _________________________ _____________.
	12. What kind of words are these: microfilm and telecommunication?
compound terms	_________________________________
a combining form (a root plus a vowel) a whole word	What word parts are these terms made of? ______________ ______________________________________ ______________________________________
micr/o-ic micr-scop-	13. Many medical terms are made of a combining form, a word root, and an ending. In the term micr/o/scop/ic, the combining form is _________________________________,the ending is _____________________________,the root is _________________________________.Is there another word root? _______________________What might it be? __________________________
vowel	14. There are two word roots in micr/o/scop/ic. The root micr is in the combining form because it is attached to a word that begins with a consonant. There is no need to add a vowel to the root scop because the ending -ic begins with a _________________________.
electrostatic	15. Build a term from the combining form electr/o, the word root stat, and the ending -ic.
word root word	16. In the word hydroelectric, electr is the _______________, hydro is the ______________________, -ic is the _________________________.
	17. Endings change the basic meaning of a root or foundation word. Examine the following sentences: Joe’s job was blast-ing the rocks. Tejo was blast-ed by the cannon.
ending	The meaning of blast is changed by its _________________________.
yes The endings added to the root changed its meaning.	18. A suffix is a word unit or syllable added to the end of a word or root that alters its meaning and creates a new word. In the words plant/er, plant/ed, and plant/ing, are these endings also suffixes? _______Explain your answer. _____________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________
porter one who carries	19. You can change the meaning of a word (or root) by adding a suffix. The suffix -er means one who. The word port means to carry. Add the suffix to the word root, write the word, and explain what it means. _________________________________ _________________________________
suffix	20. When -able is added to the end of read it forms the new word readable. -Able is a meaningful unit added to the end of a word, creating a new word. So -able is a _________________________.
im-, sup-, trans-	21. A prefix is a meaningful unit joined to the beginning of a word or root that creates a new term. In the words im/plant, sup/plant, and trans/plant, the prefixes are ________________________,_________________, and _________________.
22. In the word dis/please, dis- is a meaningful unit that comes before the word and changes the meaning of please; dis- is a _________________________________.
	23. Meaningful units that go in front of a root are called prefixes. Meaningful units placed after a root are called suffixes.
	Label the units in this word:
prefix root suffix
meaning word	24. A suffix or a prefix is called a meaningful unit because when it is attached or added to a root or word it changes the _________________________________ of the_____________.
Our suggestion:-itis is a word unit added to the end of a word altering its meaning.	25. Explain why -itis in tendonitis is called a suffix. __________________________________________ __________________________________
	OK, let’s review what you’ve covered.
root	26. The fundamental base from which meaningful terms grow or are formed is called the _________________________.
prefix	27. A meaningful word or unit placed in front of a root or word is a _________________________.
suffix	28. A syllable or word part joined to the end of a root or word that changes its meaning is a _________________________.
combining form	29. When a vowel (a, e, i, o, u) is added to a word root, the word part resulting is called the _________________ ___________________.
compound word	30. When two or more word roots combine to form a meaningful word, that word is called a ____________________________________________.

List of Illustrations

(All illustrations created by Sakrantip Blazicek of Ocala, Florida.)

Chapter 1

1.1 Acromegaly

1.2 The Upper Digestive Tract (and Heart)

1.3 Electrocardiogram (ECG)

1.4 Electrocardiogram (ECG)

Chapter 2

2.1 The Upper Respiratory Tract

2.2 The Head

Chapter 3

3.1 Adduction/Abduction

3.2 The Great Cavities

3.3 Cocci Bacteria

Chapter 4

4.1 The Male Reproductive Organs (Midline Section)

4.2 The Female Reproductive Organs (Midline Section)

4.3 Anomaly, Aneurysm, Hernia, Ptosis

4.4 Hernia, Ptosis, Anomaly, Aneurysm

4.5 The Female Urinary Tract

4.6 The Male Urinary Tract

Chapter 5

5.1 The Oral Cavity

5.2 The Digestive Tract

5.3 Path of EGD Examination

Chapter 6

6.1 Coronary Arteries: Nourishment to the Heart

6.2 The Cardiovascular System

Chapter 8

8.1 Cyst

8.2 Polyp

8.3 Papilla

8.4 Papule

8.5 Excresence

8.6 Abnormal Tissues

8.7 Dorsal/Ventral Surfaces

8.8 Midline of the Body

8.9 Regions of the Abdomen

Chapter 9

9.1 The Female Reproductive Organs (Midline Section)

9.2 The Female Reproductive Organs (Anterior View)

9.3 Embryos at 5, 6, and 8 Weeks

9.4 Fetus in Utero, Beginning 9th Week

9.5 Female Pudenda

Chapter 10

10.1 The Eye

10.2 The Lacrimal Apparatus

Chapter 11

11.1 The Respiratory Tract (Cutaway Views)