5 Roots, Prefixes and Suffixes

Anatomical terms are made up of roots, prefixes and suffixes. The root of a term often refers to an organ, tissue or condition, whereas the prefix or suffix often describes the root. For example, in the disorder hypertension, the prefix “hyper-” means “high” or “over,” and the root word “tension” refers to pressure so the word “hypertension” refers to abnormally high blood pressure.

The root is the base part of the word, generally found in the ‘middle’ of the word itself. Some common roots that might be familiar include ‘auto’ as in ‘self’, like an ‘automatic’ car, or ‘phobia’ as in ‘fear’, like ‘claustrophobia‘. Roots form the basis of new words through the addition of prefixes and suffixes. A prefix is the syllable added to the beginning of the word, or the beginning of a root. Prefixes include words such as ‘anti-‘ which means ‘against’ like antisocial, or ‘sub’ as in ‘below’ or ‘beneath’, like a ‘submarine’. Suffixes, in turn, are the letters, or syllables, found added at the end of a word or a word root. Suffixes are used to change the meaning or a function of a word, for example changing present tense to past tense. Some common suffixes include ‘-er‘ which means someone who carries out an action, such as a ‘teacher‘ or ‘dancer‘, or ‘-ful’ which means ‘full of’ or ‘notable of’, for example ‘wonderful‘ or ‘beautiful‘.

There are some common roots, prefixes and suffixes used throughout medical terminology which are primarily derived from Latin or Greek languages. Some examples of common medical roots, prefixes and suffixes are listed in the tables below.