Medical Terms Cheat Sheet
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1Medical Terms Cheat Sheet
The clue to medical terms is in their suffix which follows the end of a word and creates a new one.
For example, the suffix, “pathy,” means disease. So, when you see a word ending in “pathy,” it’s
referring to a disease, as in nephropathy which means disease of the kidney (nephro).
Suffix for Conditions
What it means
-algia
Pain
-itis
Inflammation
-oid
Resemble e.g. fibroid
-oma
Tumor
-phasia
Speech e.g. aphasia (without speech usually
following a stroke)
-plegia
Paralysis e.g. hemiplegia (half paralyzed)
-rrhage
Burst forth e.g. hemorrhage
-sclerosis
Hardening
-lith
Stones or calcifications
Root Word for Body Parts
What it means
hemo/a
Blood
nephro
Kidney
pneumo
Lung
cardi
Heart
gastro
Stomach
duodeno
Small intestine
coli
Large intestine or colon
opthal or ocul
Eye
derm
Skin
neur
Nerves
oste
Bone
hepat
Liver
encephal
Brain
phleb
Vein
myel
Spinal cord or bone marrow
Suffix for surgery and procedures
What is means
-ectomy
Removal of
-otomy
Large surgical opening
-ostomy
Small surgical hole leading out of the body e.g.
colostomy bag
-centesis
Tap or puncture to drain fluid
-tripsy
To crush e.g. lithotripsy to crush kidney stones
-oscopy
To examine with a scope exploring the body
cavity e.g. colonoscopy
There are a number of endings to medical terms that simply mean “pertaining to” and they are:
ac, al, ary, ic, ical, ous, tic and ar. For example, cardiac means pertaining to the heart, venous
means pertaining to the vein and pelvic means pertaining to the pelvis.
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