Medical Terminology Simplified

1–28 Underline the word root in the following combining forms:

therm/o

abdomin/o

nephr/o

1–29 Use the combining vowel oto change the following roots to combining

forms, and separate the elements with a slash.

Root Combining Form (Root + Vowel)

cyst ____________________

arthr ____________________

leuk ____________________

gastr ____________________

1–30 Usually, the combining vowel is an o, although other vowels may be encoun-

tered occasionally.

The combining vowel is usually an _____.

1–31 Instead of joining the two elements chemand -therapydirectly, the combin-

ing vowel ois attached to the root to form the word chem/o/therapy. The vowel has

no meaning of its own, but enables two elements to be connected to each other.

Use the combining vowel to build medical terms below. Chem/o/therapy is given as

an example.

Word Root Suffix Medical Term

chem therapy becomes chem/o/therapy

dermat -logy becomes __________ / _____ / __________

encephal -graphy becomes __________ / _____ / __________

neur -logy becomes __________ / _____ / __________

therm -meter becomes __________ / _____ / __________

1–32 The words in Frame 1–31 are easier to pronounce because the word roots

are linked with the combining vowel o.

To make a word easier to pronounce, attach a combining __________ to the

word root.

1–33 Although you may not know the meaning of all the words in this unit, you

have already started to learn the word-building system by identifying the basic

____________________ of a medical word.

6 CHAPTER 1• Introduction to Programmed Learning and Medical Word Building

therm/o

abdomin/o

nephr/o

cyst/o

arthr/o

leuk/o

gastr/o

o

vowel

elements, or parts

chem/o/therapy

kē-mō-THĔR-ă-pē

dermat/o/logy

dĕr-mă-TŎL-ō-jē

encephal/o/graphy

ĕn-sĕf-ă-LŎG-ră-fē

neur/o/logy

nū-RŎL-ō-jē

therm/o/meter

thĕr-MŎM-ĕ-tĕr