If medical terminology sounds like a foreign language, it’s because much of it is! A lot of terms you’ll encounter in anatomy class have Latin or Greek roots. Learn the common prefixes, which are the groups of letters at the beginning of the word and suffixes, which are the letter groupings at the end. The root word is the base. As an example, take a look at “pericarditis.” The root is card, which means “heart.” The suffix is itis, which means “inflammation.” And the prefix is peri, which means “around.” Even if you’d never seen this word before, you could safely assume, based on its basic components, that pericarditis refers to inflammation around the heart. And if you’re familiar with the pericardium, which is the sac-like tissue that surrounds the heart, you can infer that pericarditis is specifically referring to the inflammation of the pericardium. Knowing the components of the words you’re studying can help you decipher other terms as well.
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