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Medical Terminology — Practice Questions flashcards

6 of 55 questions free to study here · 24 topics · the whole deck is built into Willys

Multiple-choice practice questions, one best answer each, on prefixes, suffixes, combining forms by body system, term building, plurals and clinical abbreviations.

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Practice 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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6 questions from the deck as they are. Flip, rate yourself, filter by topic; your progress stays in this browser.

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  1. After a stroke, a patient cannot move the right arm or the right leg at all. The left side is unaffected. Which term describes this?

    A) Paraplegia
    B) Quadriplegia
    C) Hemiplegia
    D) Monoplegia
    C) Hemiplegia

    Hemi- means half or one side and -plegia means paralysis, so the term names paralysis of one side of the body. Paraplegia is paralysis of both legs, not of an arm and leg on the same side.
    Number Prefixes
  2. A newborn has two toes joined together by a web of skin. Which term describes this finding?

    A) Dactylitis
    B) Brachydactyly
    C) Polydactyly
    D) Syndactyly
    D) Syndactyly

    Syn- means together or joined, and dactyl/o means finger or toe, so syndactyly is fused or webbed digits. Polydactyly would mean extra digits, not joined ones.
    Negation & Quality Prefixes
  3. In the word sphygmomanometer, the cuff instrument used to measure blood pressure, what does sphygm/o mean?

    A) Pulse
    B) Clot
    C) Vessel
    D) Pressure
    A) Pulse

    Sphygm/o means pulse. Vessel is angi/o or vas/o, and clot is thromb/o.
    Cardiovascular & Blood
  4. A patient's chart lists myalgia after a long hike. What is the patient experiencing?

    A) Joint pain
    B) Nerve pain
    C) Spinal cord pain
    D) Muscle pain
    D) Muscle pain

    My/o (muscle) + -algia (pain). Don't confuse my/o with myel/o, which means spinal cord or bone marrow; joint pain would be arthralgia.
    Musculoskeletal
  5. A physical exam finds swollen, enlarged lymph nodes in the neck. Which term describes this finding?

    A) Lymphadenopathy
    B) Lymphedema
    C) Adenoma
    D) Splenomegaly
    A) Lymphadenopathy

    Lymph/o (lymph) + aden/o (gland) + -pathy (disease): enlarged or diseased lymph nodes. Lymphedema is tissue swelling from lymph fluid, not node enlargement.
    Endocrine & Lymphatic
  6. Why is the handwritten abbreviation U, for unit, on The Joint Commission's Do Not Use list?

    A) It can stand for either of two drugs
    B) It can be misread as IV or the number 10
    C) It can be misread as 0, 4 or cc
    D) It can be confused with every other day
    C) It can be misread as 0, 4 or cc

    A handwritten U can look like 0, 4 or cc, causing a tenfold error, so unit is written out. Being misread as IV or 10 is the problem with IU, a separate entry on the list.
    Do-Not-Use List

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More Medical Terminology decks

Prefixes & SuffixesCombining Forms by Body SystemTerm Building & Abbreviations

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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).
  • Do-not-use abbreviations checked against The Joint Commission's official "Do Not Use" list (reference only; facts restated in original wording).
  • Original questions written for this deck; no official, textbook or question-bank items were copied. Medication amounts are deliberately omitted.

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