Medical Terminology Flashcards
This is a free 20-card deck of the word parts a first-term medical terminology course tests you on. The front of each card names a prefix, root or suffix together with a real term that uses it. The back gives the meaning, takes the term apart, and adds one thing worth remembering.
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All 20 cards in this deck
The full deck is listed below, front and back. Answers stay collapsed until you open them, so you can quiz yourself as you scroll.
1. brady- and tachy- (bradycardia, tachypnea): what do these prefixes mean?
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brady- means slow and tachy- means fast, both from Greek. Bradycardia is a heart rate under 60 beats per minute; tachypnea is fast breathing. They are opposites, so learning them as a pair costs less than learning them apart.
2. hyper- and hypo- (hyperglycemia, hypoglycemia): what is the difference?
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hyper- means above or excessive, hypo- means below or deficient. Hyperglycemia is high blood sugar and hypoglycemia is low blood sugar. Hypo- also means under in the physical sense: a hypodermic needle goes under the skin.
3. dys- (dyspnea): what does this prefix mean?
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dys- means bad, difficult or painful. Dyspnea is difficult or labored breathing. Watch the pair dysphagia and dysphasia: phag/o is swallowing, so dysphagia is trouble swallowing, while phas/o is speech, so dysphasia is trouble speaking.
4. poly- (polyuria): what does this prefix mean?
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poly- means many or much. Polyuria is passing large amounts of urine. With polydipsia, excessive thirst, and polyphagia, excessive hunger, it makes up the classic three signs of untreated diabetes.
5. peri- and endo- (pericardium, endocardium): what do these prefixes mean?
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peri- means around and endo- means within. The pericardium is the sac around the heart; the endocardium is the membrane lining the inside of its chambers. The same pair separates pericarditis from endocarditis.
6. cardi/o and my/o (myocardium): which body parts?
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cardi/o is heart and my/o is muscle, so the myocardium is the heart muscle itself. The same roots build electrocardiogram, a record of the heart's electrical activity, and cardiomyopathy, disease of the heart muscle.
7. derm/o and dermat/o (dermatitis): which body part?
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Both mean skin, from Greek derma. Dermatitis is inflamed skin and a dermatologist treats the skin. Most body parts get one root; skin is one of the few with two forms, so expect to meet both.
8. gastr/o (gastritis): which body part?
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gastr/o means stomach, from Greek gaster. Gastritis is inflammation of the stomach lining and a gastroenterologist treats the stomach and intestines. Note the spelling: the combining vowel drops before -itis, giving gastritis rather than gastroitis.
9. nephr/o and hepat/o (nephritis, hepatitis): which organs?
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nephr/o is kidney and hepat/o is liver, both from Greek. Nephritis is an inflamed kidney and a nephrectomy removes one; hepatitis is an inflamed liver. Kidney also has a Latin root, ren/o, which is why renal failure and nephritis describe the same organ.
10. oste/o (osteoporosis): which body part?
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oste/o means bone, from Greek osteon. Osteoporosis is porous, thinned bone and osteoarthritis is joint disease from worn cartilage. Osteomyelitis adds myel/o, marrow, so it is inflammation of bone and marrow, usually from infection.
11. neur/o (neuropathy): which body part?
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neur/o means nerve, from Greek neuron. Neuropathy is nerve disease, often felt as numbness or burning in the feet, and neuralgia is nerve pain. Same root, different suffix, different meaning.
12. pulmon/o (pulmonary edema): which body part?
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pulmon/o means lung, from Latin pulmo. Pulmonary edema is fluid in the lungs and cardiopulmonary means heart and lungs together. Greek supplies a second lung root, pneum/o, as in pneumonia.
13. hemat/o and hem/o (hematoma): what do they refer to?
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Both mean blood, from Greek haima. A hematoma is a pocket of blood collected outside a vessel, hematuria is blood in the urine, and hematology is the study of blood. The same root also ends words as -emia.
14. -itis (appendicitis): what does this suffix mean?
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-itis means inflammation. Appendicitis is an inflamed appendix and tonsillitis is inflamed tonsils. Inflammation is not the same thing as infection: arthritis and dermatitis often have no organism behind them.
15. -ectomy, -otomy and -ostomy (appendectomy, tracheotomy, colostomy): how do they differ?
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-ectomy is removal, -otomy is cutting into, and -ostomy is creating a lasting opening. An appendectomy takes the appendix out, a tracheotomy is an incision into the windpipe, and a colostomy brings the colon to an opening in the abdominal wall. One letter separates cutting in from leaving an opening, so read those endings slowly.
16. -emia (anemia): what does this suffix mean?
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-emia means a blood condition, from the same Greek root as hemat/o. Anemia is too few red blood cells or too little hemoglobin, hyperkalemia is high potassium in the blood, and hypoglycemia is low blood sugar. The prefix tells you the direction.
17. -pathy and -algia (cardiomyopathy, myalgia): what do these suffixes mean?
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-pathy means disease and -algia means pain. Cardiomyopathy is disease of the heart muscle; myalgia is muscle pain. Swap the suffix on one root and you move from a diagnosis to a symptom: neuropathy is nerve disease, neuralgia is nerve pain.
18. -megaly (hepatomegaly): what does this suffix mean?
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-megaly means enlargement, from Greek megas, large. Hepatomegaly is an enlarged liver, cardiomegaly an enlarged heart, splenomegaly an enlarged spleen. It reports size found on an exam or a scan, never the cause.
19. -scopy and -plasty (colonoscopy, angioplasty): what do these suffixes mean?
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-scopy is looking inside with an instrument and -plasty is surgical repair or reshaping. A colonoscopy views the colon; angioplasty widens a narrowed vessel. Keep -scope and -scopy apart: the scope is the instrument, the scopy is the procedure done with it.
20. Hypertrophy versus hyperplasia: what is the difference?
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Hypertrophy is growth in the size of existing cells; hyperplasia is growth in their number. Left ventricular hypertrophy is a thicker heart wall built from bigger muscle cells, while benign prostatic hyperplasia is a bigger prostate built from more cells. Both enlarge the organ, so the ending is what you read, not the prefix.
Why word parts beat memorizing whole terms
A medical vocabulary list can run to thousands of terms. Almost every one of them is built from a small set of pieces: a prefix at the front, a root in the middle, a suffix at the end. Learn a few dozen pieces and you can read terms nobody taught you.
Decode from the back forward. Read the suffix first, then the prefix, then the root. Pericarditis: -itis is inflammation, peri- is around, cardi is heart, so it is inflammation of the sac around the heart. Polyneuropathy: -pathy is disease, poly- is many, neur is nerve, so it is disease affecting many nerves. Electrocardiogram: -gram is a record, electr/o is electricity, cardi/o is heart, so it is a record of the heart's electrical activity. None of those needed to be memorized as whole words.
One spelling rule explains most of what looks irregular. Roots usually carry a combining vowel, written cardi/o or gastr/o. The o stays when the next part starts with a consonant, as in gastroscopy, and drops when the suffix starts with a vowel, which is why the word is gastritis and not gastroitis.
How to use this deck
Run through all 20 cards once without stopping, just to see which parts you already own. Say the meaning out loud before you flip. Recalling it out loud is what builds the memory; rereading the back ten times does not.
On the second pass, build a term of your own with each part. Take a root from one card and attach a suffix from another: gastr/o plus -ectomy gives gastrectomy, removal of the stomach, and hepat/o plus -megaly gives hepatomegaly, an enlarged liver. Producing the word is harder than recognizing it, which is exactly why it sticks.
Give extra attention to the pairs that differ by a letter or two, like -otomy and -ostomy, or hypertrophy and hyperplasia. Exams target those on purpose. If you miss one of those cards, write both terms side by side with their meanings before you move on.
How StudyPDF builds decks from your own course materials
Twenty cards cover the parts most courses open with. Your instructor's list is longer, and it is usually weighted toward whatever specialty your program cares about, so at some point a generic deck stops matching the test you are actually sitting.
Upload your own word part list, lecture slides or textbook chapter to StudyPDF and Bo, the study agent, builds flashcards from that exact material. The cards keep your instructor's wording, each one points back to the page it came from, and reviews are scheduled so the parts you keep missing come back sooner. Starting is free.
Written by the StudyPDF team. Last updated 2026-08-19.