MEDICAL CODING CLASS – 2

Medical Coding, MEDICAL TERMINOLOGY

What is Medical Terminology?

Definition:Medical terminology is language that is used to accurately describe the human body and associated components, conditions, processes and procedures in a science-based manner.It is to be used in the medical and nursing fields.

Parts of Medical Terminology……

Prefix:

“Pre-” means before. A prefix starts the medical term and it changes the meaning of the medical term.

E.g. Dys- , hyper- , ab- etc.

Root word:

Central part of the word. It is the foundation (main part) of the medical term which contains the basic meaning.

Generally it is the name of the organ.

E.g. Gastr-, Cephal-, etc.

Combing Vowel:

It is a vowel (a, e, i, o, u) that combines one root word with one suffix or one root word with another.

E.g. Enterology, Gastroenterology, etc.

Suffix:

It end the medical term and changes the meaning such as condition, disease process, or procedure of the medical term.

E.g. –al, -blast, -scope, etc.

• In the process of creating medical terminology, certain rules of language apply. These rules are part of language mechanics called linguistics. So, when a term is developed, some logical process is applied.

• The word root is developed to include a vowel sound following the term to add a smoothing action to the sound of the word when applying a suffix. The result is the formation of a new term with a vowel attached (word root + vowel) called a combining form.

In English, the most common vowel used in the formation of the combining form is the letter -o-, added to the word root.

Combing Form= Root word + Combing vowel

E.g. Aden/o-, Arthr/o-, Cyt/o-, etc.

Examples of some Prefix with meaning

Examples of some Suffix with meaning

Examples of some Combing Forms with meaning