Basic word Structure

1.1 Analysis of Medical Word Parts
Medical words are made up of the following word parts: roots, suffixes, and prefixes. Not all medical words have all three parts, but we will start by looking at an example that does. The word is perineuritis (per-ih-nyoo-RYE-tis).It means inflammation around a nerve. When you break the word into its word parts you will have the following:

* peri- * neur * -itis

The first part, peri-,is the prefix. Whenever a prefix stands alone in this text, it is fol-lowed by a hyphen, as can be seen in the above example.
The root in this example is neur. A root is usually (but not always) a body part.
The last part of the example is the suffix,-itis.Whenever a suffix stands alone in this text it is preceded by a hyphen.
Once you learn roots, suffixes and prefixes you will be able to define words you have not seen before by simply analyzing the word using the method described in the next section.

How to Define Medical Words

This is the way to define medical words:

1. Identify the suffix first, then the prefix (if there is one),and then the root.
Remember that most words have only two parts, so do not think you will find all three all the time. A few words only have one part.
2. Define the medical word by startingat the suffix. Find out what it means. Then go to the beginning of the word. It will be either a prefix or a root. Find out what it means. If there is another part, it will be a root.Once you have all the meanings, put them together.
1.2 Basic Word Structure