Technicolor terms
Tumor talk
Adding – oma (a swelling) to organ and tissue word roots names tumors. Not all tumors are malignant (cancerous). Many are benign
(not life-threatening).
Aden/o | = gland | adenoma ![]() |
Lip/o | = fat | lipoma ![]() |
My/o | = muscle | myoma ![]() |
Lymph/o | = lymph ![]() | lymphoma ![]() |
Carcin/o | = malignant | carcinoma ![]() |
Osteo/o | = bone | osteoma ![]() |
Directions, please?
In review, the word parts that make up medical terminology are prefixes, suffixes, and word roots. The most typical sequence is prefix, word root, suffix with the word root being central but this is not always the case.
In terms of simplification, putting a hyphen in front of a suffix to indicate it is added to the end of a word, for example, -itis. Prefixes and word roots are shown as freestanding word parts. You may have noticed that sometimes there is a slash and a vowel, for example, melan/o. These are called combining forms, which make it easier to attach to other word parts and, hopefully, make them easier to pronounce.
Signs and symptoms – (Ever wonder what the difference is?)
A symptom is something you observe and complain about to the physician. “Doctor, I have a fever.”
A sign is something the physician observes and/or can measure. “Mrs. Smith, you are running a temp of 102.″