Medical Terminology — Combining Forms by Body System flashcards

10 of 80 cards free to study here · 11 topics · the whole deck is built into Willys

Eighty cards of combining forms organized by body system, from cardi/o and nephr/o to blephar/o and salping/o, each with a real example term and notes on Greek–Latin pairs and look-alikes such as my/o vs myel/o.

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Learn deck · part of Medical Terminology · written against: Standard allied-health medical terminology course; The Joint Commission do-not-use list. Updated 2026-10-10.

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cardi/o

Means heart.

Example: cardiomyopathy — disease of the heart muscle.
Cardiovascular & Blood
pneum/o, pulmon/o

Means lung (pneum/o can also mean air).

Example: pneumothorax — air in the pleural space; pulmonology — the specialty of lung disease.
Respiratory
gastr/o

Means stomach.

Example: gastritis — inflammation of the stomach lining.
Digestive
nephr/o, ren/o

Means kidney.

Example: nephrectomy — removal of a kidney; renal artery — the artery supplying a kidney.
Watch out: nephr/o (Greek) builds most disease and procedure terms, while ren/o (Latin) is mostly used in anatomical adjectives.
Urinary
neur/o

Means nerve.

Example: neuralgia — sharp pain along the course of a nerve.
Nervous
derm/o, dermat/o, cutane/o

Means skin.

Example: dermatitis — inflammation of the skin; subcutaneous — beneath the skin.
Integumentary
ophthalm/o, ocul/o

Means eye.

Example: ophthalmologist — a physician specializing in the eye; intraocular — within the eye.
Eye & Ear
hyster/o, uter/o, metr/o

Means uterus.

Example: hysterectomy — removal of the uterus; endometrium — the inner lining of the uterus.
Reproductive
aden/o

Means gland.

Example: adenoma — a benign tumor of glandular tissue.
Endocrine & Lymphatic
cyt/o

Means cell.

Example: cytology — the study of cells, as in examining a Pap smear.
General Pathology

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About these cards

Review status: Second-reader reviewed, with corrections applied.

Checked against:

Checked against "Building a Medical Terminology Foundation" (Kimberlee Carter and Marie Rutherford, CC BY 4.0) and Merriam-Webster Medical Dictionary definitions (reference only; all wording is original).

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