Medical terminology is greek to most of us. Actually it is Latin, but Latin is also Greek to us. To understand medical terms you need to break them down to their components (prefixes, roots, and suffixes). For example, Polychondritis is a combination of "Poly," which means much-many, and "chondr," which means cartilage, and "itis" which means inflamation. so it means a widespread inflamation of cartilage.
Knowing the meaning of a small number of components can help with interpretation of a large number of medical terms. The following list breaks down some of the more commonly used medical prefixes and suffixes.
a(n) absence of acou, acu hear aden(o) gland aer(o) air alg pain andr(o) man angi(o) vessel ankyl(o) crooked, curved ante before anter(i) front, forward anti against arteri(o) artery arthr(o) joint articul joint ather(o) fatty audi(o) hearing aur(i) ear aut(o) self bi, bis double, twice, two brachy short brady slow bucc(o) cheek carcin(o) cancer cardi(o) heart cephal(o) head cerebr(o) brain cervic neck chol(e) bile, or referring to gallbladder chondr(o) cartilage circum around, about contra against, counter corpor body cost(o) rib crani(o) skull cry(o) cold cut skin cyan(o) blue cyst(o) bladder cyt(o) cell dactyl(o) finger or toe dent tooth derm(ato) skin dipl(o) double dors back dys bad, faulty, abnormal ectomy excision (removal by cutting) emia blood encephal(o) brain end(o) inside enter(o) intestine epi outer, superficial, upon erythr(o) red eu normal extra outside gastr(o) stomach gen become, originate gloss(o) tongue glyc(o) sweet, or referring to glucose gram, graph write, record gyn woman hem(ato) blood hemi half hepat(o) liver hist(o) tissue hydr(o) water hyper excessive, high hypo deficient, low hyster(o) uterus iatr(o) doctor infra beneath inter among, between intra inside itis inflammation lact(o) milk lapar(o) flank, abdomen latero side leuk(o) white lingu(o) tongue lip(o) fat lys(is) dissolve mal bad, abnormal malac soft mamm(o) breast mast(o) breast megal(o) large melan(o) black mening(o) membranes my(o) muscle myc(o) fungus myel(o) marrow nas(o) nose necr(o) death nephr(o) kidney neur(o) nerve nutri nourish ocul(o) eye odyn(o) pain oma tumor onc(o) tumor oophor(o) ovaries ophthalm(o) eye opia vision opsy examination orchi(o) testes osis condition osse(o) bone oste(o) bone ot(o) ear path(o) disease ped(o) child penia deficient, deficiency peps, pept digest peri around phag(o) eat, destroy pharmaco drug pharyng(o) throat phleb(o) vein phob(ia) fear plasty repair pleg(ia) paralysis pnea breathing pneum(ato) breath, air pneumon(o) lung pod(o) foot poie make, produce poly much, many post after poster(i) back, behind presby elder proct(o) anus pseud(o) false psych(o) mind pulmon(o) lung pyel(o) pelvis of kidney pyr(o) fever, fire rachi(o) spine ren(o) kidneys rhag break, burst rhe flow rhin(o) nose scler(o) hard scope instrument scopy examination somat(o) body spondyl(o) vertebra steat(o) fat sten(o) narrow, compressed steth(o) chest stom mouth, opening supra above tachy fast, quick therap treatment therm(o) heat thorac(o) chest thromb(o) clot, lump tomy incision (operation by cutting) tox(i) poison uria urine vas(o) vessel ven(o) vein vesic(o) bladder xer(o) dry