Hospital Corpsman 3 & 2: June 1989

Appendix III - Prefixes and Suffixes Used in Medical Terminology

Naval Education and Training Command

The following are some of the more common prefixes and suffixes used by health care providers to describe body conditions and procedures.

Prefixes
(Pertaining to the body)

brach	arm
capit	head
cardi	heart
chole	gall
cyst	bladder
derma	skin
entero	intestines
glosso	tongue
gastro	stomach
hemo	blood
hepat	liver
laparo	abdomen
myo	muscle
nephro	kidney
neuro	nerve
oculo, ophthalm	eye
odont	tooth
oto	ear
osteo	bone
oral	mouth
pharyn	throat
phleb	vein
pneumo	lung
procto	rectum
rhino	nose
thorac	chest
(Pertaining to conditions)
a or an	lacking or absence of
ab	away from
ad	towards, addition of
ante	before
anti	against
auto	self
contra	against, opposed to
dys	difficult, painful
endo	within
hemi	half
hydro	water
hyper	above, increase
hypo	below, under
mal	faulty, poor
neo	new
oligi	scanty, few
ortho	straight
peri	around
poly	many, much
pyo	pus
pyro	heat, temperature

Suffixes
(Pertaining to body conditions)

-algia	pain
-cele	tumor, hernia
-emia	blood
-esthesia	sensation
-iasis (osis)	condition of
-itis	inflammation
-lith	stone, calculus
-oma	growth, tumor
-opia	vision
-osis (iasis)	condition of
-pathy	disease
-phobia	fear or dread
-plegia	paralysis
-pnea	breathing
-ptosis	drooping, falling
-rrhea	flow, discharge
-therapy	treatment
-thermy	heat
-tropic	nutrition, growth
-trophy	nutrition, growth
-uric, uria	urine
(Pertaining to procedures)
-ectomy	removal of
-plasty	to form or build up
-(o)rrhaphy	repair of
-(o)stomy	creation of an opening
-(o)tomy	cutting into
-manometer	used to measure pressure
-meter	used to measure
-scope,-scopy	used to examine by looking into or by hearing

Examples of Combinations of Prefixes and Suffixes

• chole + cyst + itis = cholecystitis: inflammation of the gallbladder

  • chole = gall

  • cyst = bladder

  • itis = inflammation

   

• chole + lith + iasis = cholelithiasis: condition resulting from gallstones

  • chole = gall

  • lith = stone

  • iasis = condition resulting from

   

• odont + algia = odontalgia: tooth pain (tooth ache)

  • odont = tooth

  • algia = pain

   

• rhino + plasty = rhinoplasty: to form or build up the nose

  • rhino = nose

  • plasty = to form or build up

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Operational Medicine 2001

Health Care in Military Settings

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