MedTerm Suffixes

In this lesson we’re going to talk about suffixes with medical terminology.

So when we are  looking at medical terms the first thing we want to look at is the suffix itself because the suffix provides context to the term. So for instance if we looked at something like -logy, we would know that whatever we are looking at the term, -logy says that  study of whatever that root word is. When you’re creating medical terms it’s important to use the proper combining form and vowel. So if we’re going to use the suffix -logy, and we add bio to it, we wouldn’t call it bi logy, because that’s not the proper form. Because logy is the actual suffix, we can add the  bio to it and that would mean the study of life.

What we’re trying to figure out what an actual word means, you still want to start with the suffix and then work backwards. So let’s look at the word hematology. Again -logy is the study of, but we start with that and then work backward.  We can recognize that hemato means blood, so this is the study of blood.

So there are 10 important rules for converting singular forms of words to plural words when it comes to medical terminology.

Anytime the word ends in a, in order to convert that to a plural form, it would be “sae”. Here you can see that Bursa turns to a bursae.

When a word ends with -is we need to change it to -es. So for the singular form of prognosis it would then be prognoses.

If a term ends in ix or ex, that needs to be converted to -ices . So here we could see that cervix is converted to cervices.

If a term ends -on and and will need to change to -a  in a for the plural form. So you can see here that criterion converts to criteria.

Similarly bacterium is converted to bacteria from single to plural form because is converted to a.

With words that end in -us they need to end in -i for the plural form. This is like bronchus to bronchi.

Now words that end with -itis are a little more complicated. You don’t just replace itis with -ides. You actually drop the -is and add -ides. So meningitis in the singular form is converted to meningitides.

Words that end in -nx are converted to -nges. So words like Phalanx is converted to a phalanges.

Words that end in -y and the singular form are then converted to -ies,  so pathology would be changed to pathologies.

and lastly any words that end in -x are changed into -ces.  So appendix would then change to appendices.

Now here are just a few common suffixes. I’m not going to go over all of them but these are some of the most common ones that you’ll see,  so you should work to remember them. Algia refers to pain and cytes are cells. One that you may need to know is centesis which is an actual surgical puncture for fluid removal. It’s also really important to know the difference between gram and graphy. A -gram, like an electrocardiogram is an actual record whereas -graphy is the process of recording. So this would be something like angiography which is the process of recording blood flow through vessels. Now you’ll see some common terms like -itis and -logy and another term -lysis which is a breakdown. A couple of other ones that you’ll notice are things like sclerosis which is a hardening and then therapy which is treatment.

Okay, so let’s recap. Remember when you’re talkin about suffixes that they actually provide you the context of the word. Because of that you always want to start backward with the medical term then go to the front and move forward to the word. And lastly don’t forget your 10 rules for going from the singular to the plural form. Go back and check the slide out and practice all of these rules so that you can get a better understanding of how suffixes really help to spell out what a medical term is.

That’s it for our lesson on suffixes. Make sure you check out all the resources attached to this lesson. Now, go out and be your best self today, and as always, happy nursing!