Page 15 - 633 102 Professional English for Pharmacists E-Course book

Root Words

The central meaning of a term is conveyed by a word element called the root word. It is the
foundation to which other word elements are added to build a complete, meaningful word. All
terms have at least one word root. When being connected to other word elements, root words
are converted into combining forms. A combining form is a root word to which a combining vowel
has been added in order to link the root to a second root word or to a suffix. Like in English, the
combining vowels include a, e, i, o, and u but the most common combining vowel is “o”.
Combining forms are typically represented by the root word, followed by a slash (/), followed by
the combining vowel. Throughout this tutorial, you will see combining forms represented in this
way.

When you see the word root, it can tell you the part of the body, for instance, myel/myeo
which came from Greek-mueos means bone marrow or spinal cord. Oste/osteo (Greek-osteon)
means bone such as osteoarthritis means inflammation of the bone. My/myo (Greek-mueous)
means muscle, for example myopathy or rhabdomyolysis. Neur/neuro (Greek-neuron) means
nerve. Arth/artho (Greek-arthron) means joint, for example arthritis. In medical terminology,
root words (and their associated combining forms) usually refer to anatomic structures or
physiological concepts. Memorizing just a few will enable you to understand a wide variety
of medical terms. Examples of combining forms for some common root words are listed
in the following table.

Root Word + Combining Form Meaning

cardi O Cardi/o Heart
Vascul O Vascul/o Blood vessels
Immune O Immune/o Immunity
Respire O Respire/o Respiration
Ren O Ren/o Kidney
Nephr O Nephr/o Kidney
arthr O Arthr/o Joint

Note:

Most root words are derived from either the Greek or Latin. Because of this dual origin, some
anatomic structures are associated with two or more root words. For example, the roots
ren and nephr both refer to the kidneys. In general, roots that refer to the kidneys. In
general, roots that refer to body organs originated from Latin words, while roots used in
terms pertaining to organ disease are typically derived from the Greek. Thus, the Latin
root ren is mainly used in anatomic terms, while the Greek root nephr is mainly used in
terms related to kidney disease. To form meaningful words, root words (or their combining
forms) are combined with other word elements, such as suffixes.

Suffixes

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