Medical Terminology: A Word Association Approach

In this lesson, you'll learn about prefixes and suffixes that are common in medicine and start with the letters A through H. Starting here, you won't be going through the word associations that you did in previous lessons. By now, you'll find that you can recognize many of these terms as they're used in normal, everyday language.

In this lesson, you'll continue to progress through the prefixes and suffixes commonly used in medical terminology. Your objective here will be to identify the common medical prefixes and suffixes that begin with the letters I through O.

In this lesson, you'll complete your tour through the alphabetical listings of the most common prefixes and suffixes used in medical terminology by focusing on prefixes and suffixes that begin with the letters P through Z. You'll find that there are many more terms that medical professionals use less often, and you'll even discover that sometimes a root that you already know is used as a prefix or suffix.

In previous lessons, you learned about common prefixes and suffixes. In this lesson, you'll study specific prefixes and suffixes that pertain to color. Color is used quite a bit in the medical field because it helps everyone to describe various signs and symptoms. In this lesson, you'll also go over medical abbreviations that are specific to the various occupations and titles of the medical industry. Your assignment in this lesson will change a little as your research becomes a bit more challenging.

The medical community uses an abundance of abbreviations. Some medical facilities don't allow them, but you should still learn the meanings of the most common abbreviations so you'll know them when you see them. For this lesson, you'll study the abbreviations that start with the letters A through R. Your assignment for this lesson will be a bit different—you're going to find words in a medical note that you can replace with the abbreviations that you learned in the lesson.

In this lesson, you'll finish your study of medical abbreviations as you explore the abbreviations that begin with letters S through Z. You'll also go over specific abbreviations that refer to hospital areas, laboratory tests, chemistries, and medical symbols. In this assignment, it's up to you to find the abbreviations that correctly relate to each sentence in a medical note.

Here in the final lesson, it's time to put everything you've learned together. You'll look at your roots, prefixes, and suffixes, and see how they create combined medical terms from body system to body system. You'll also learn some directional terms that are commonly used in medicine. You'll find that your assignment for this lesson provides you the opportunity to decipher a complete medical note.

Instructor-Moderated: Students enrolled in a six-week online class benefit from a one-time, 10-day extension for each course. No further extensions can be provided beyond these 10 days.​

Self-Guided: Because this course is self-guided, no extensions will be granted after the start of your enrollment.

Medical terminology is the special language used to describe the human body. This includes the body's processes, systems, components, conditions affecting it, and the procedures that are performed on it. It is a special language found throughout healthcare professions that allows workers to communicate more quickly and effectively with one another.

Understanding medical terminology is extremely important if you work in or aspire to work in healthcare. Everything you do in healthcare positions will be based on it as it's used to describe not only diagnoses and procedures but also symptoms and medical equipment. Knowing medical terminology will help you communicate with other healthcare workers to ensure that patients get proper care and will set you apart as a dedicated professional in the industry.

Medical terms are often created using various prefixes and suffixes in Latin and Ancient Greek. The meaning of these words are frequently derived from the language of origin. These prefixes and suffixes are combined with a root term to create meaning.

The root in medical terminology often refers to the organ, tissue, or condition that is being referenced. Once you understand the way medical terminology is put together and memorize some of the roots as well as suffixes and prefixes, it becomes easy to understand various terms and how they are assembled.

Doctors, nurses, medical technicians and others who perform procedures are not the only people who need to understand medical terminology. Almost any type of healthcare job can benefit from an understanding of medical terminology. Even if you're working at an entry-level, it will help you to develop a basic knowledge of medical terminology in the following careers as well:

• Medical transcriptionist
• Medical records specialist
• Surgical technician
• Occupational therapy assistant/aide
• Radiology technician
• Medical assistant
• Pharmacy technician
• Medical biller
• Medical coder
• Pharmaceutical salesperson

In addition to those in healthcare, there are also several non-healthcare careers that would benefit from a knowledge of medical transcription. Lawyers, paralegals, court reporters, legal secretaries and other legal professionals who handle cases that involve medical related issues should understand the terminology involved. Therapists and counselors should also consider a course in medical terminology as it can help them when interacting with and discussing patients.

Word association is the natural production of additional words in response to a given word. This is often made into a game to prompt memory and is a very effective learning technique especially when learning a new language.