Medical terminology is a combination of prefixes, suffixes, and combining forms. In today’s world it is used to help healthcare professionals and allied health as well. Everyone involved in healthcare can perform their job more efficiently and effectively because of medical terminology. It makes documentation much faster and easier. Often times a lot of people tend to get confused while learning medical terminology because of the complex terms that are used. Thankfully due to breaking down the medical vocabulary in different components makes it a lot easier to understand. Prefixes Prefixes are group words that are located in front of the combining forms. These words are most frequently used in the formation …show more content…
Most suffixes have their own meaning and often change the complete meaning of the medical term. Usually when defining a medical term, you would define the suffix or last part of the word first. Suffixes are usually the disorder, condition, disease, or procedure. These words can also not be used independently, and are served to expand the meaning of the combining forms. “The combining vowel¬¬-usually “o” links the root to the suffix or the root to another root.” Usually the combining vowel “o” is used when the suffix begins with a consonant. When you add a suffix to the end of a combining form, it then becomes an adjective or a noun just like the English Language. A combining form or a prefix can come before a suffix. A suffix is not used before a combining vowel with a vowel, and a combining vowel must be used to link one combining form to another combining form. To make a medical word plural, you must look at the suffix first. When suffixes are standing alone, they are expressed by a hyphen in front of the suffix. Examples of some suffixes are: -ac, -ac, meaning pertaining to. Another example of a suffix is: -algia, meaning pain. A couple of examples of words using a suffix would be arthralgia, meaning pain in a joint, cardiac, meaning pertaining to the heart, and neural, meaning pertaining to a nerve. Those are all good examples of suffixes and how they are used in the health field today. Combining