Why you need to study the medical language • The health care workers and related people use medical terms to communicate • Medical literature uses the medical language / terms • It is a sort of global medical language • Knowing the rules applied in making a medical term helps you to interpret the long and difficult term Important elements of medical terms Parts of a medical term (word): 1. Prefix: Beginning part of a word 2. Root. It is a foundation of the term 3. Suffix: Ending part of a word IMPORTANT: Root can combine easily with suffix if the first letter of suffix is a vowel, however, if it is not then add a vowel after the root called Combing vowel it is usually “O” that links the root to the suffix and the root combined with "o" is called Combining form of the root. Important elements of medical terms Parts of a term • Root is the foundation of the term e.g., Hematology. • Here Hemat is root • Suffix: Ending part of a word e.g., Hematology. • Here logy is suffix Important elements of medical terms Parts of a term • Combing vowel: vowel usually (O) that links the root to the suffix or the root to another root e.g., Hematology. • Here o is combining vowel • Combining form: combination of the root and the combining vowel e.g., Hematology. Hemato is the combining form of Hemet (the root) and logy is suffix Always read meaning of medical terms starting from suffix back to beginning of the term e.g. • “Endometritis” Inflammation of the endometrium (of Uterus).