25 questions on the prefixes, roots and suffixes medical words are built from. Answer one and the explanation opens under it.
1Prefix
What does the prefix neo- mean, as in neonate?
neo- means new, recent. Neonate: a newborn.
A — “few, scanty, too little” is olig- and oligo-. C — “upon, over, on top of” is epi-. D — “four” is quadri- and tetra-.
2Prefix
Which prefix means “beside, near; also abnormal”?
para- means beside, near; also abnormal. Parathyroid: the glands lying beside the thyroid.
B — hypo- means below normal, under, deficient. C — hemi- and semi- means half. D — quadri- and tetra- means four.
3Prefix
What does the prefix brady- mean, as in bradycardia?
brady- means slow. Bradycardia: a slow heart rate.
A — “three” is tri-. B — “new, recent” is neo-. D — “between” is inter-.
4Prefix
Which prefix means “few, scanty, too little”?
olig- and oligo- mean few, scanty, too little. Oliguria: passing abnormally little urine.
A — brady- means slow. B — ante- means before, in front of. C — peri- means around, surrounding.
5Prefix
What does the prefix mal- mean, as in malabsorption?
mal- means bad, poor, faulty. Malabsorption: poor absorption of nutrients.
A — “few, scanty, too little” is olig- and oligo-. C — “toward” is ad-. D — “above normal, excessive” is hyper-.
6Prefix
Which prefix means “before, in front of”?
pre- and pro- mean before, in front of. Prenatal: before birth.
B — hypo- means below normal, under, deficient. C — de- means down, removal, loss of. D — ab- means away from.
7Prefix
What does the prefix intra- mean, as in intravenous?
intra- means within, inside. Intravenous: inside a vein.
B — “one, single” is mono- and uni-. C — “below normal, under, deficient” is hypo-. D — “three” is tri-.
8Prefix
Which prefix means “half”?
hemi- and semi- mean half. Hemisphere: half of a sphere, one side of the brain.
A — re- means again, back. B — mal- means bad, poor, faulty. D — anti- means against.
9Root
What do the roots col/o and colon/o mean, as in colonoscopy?
col/o and colon/o mean colon, large intestine. Colonoscopy: examining the colon with a scope.
A — “clot” is thromb/o. B — “ear” is ot/o. D — “artery” is arteri/o.
10Root
Which root means “vein”?
ven/o and phleb/o mean vein. Phlebotomy: drawing blood by cutting into a vein.
A — hidr/o means sweat. B — pulmon/o means lung. C — kal/i means potassium.
11Root
What does the root gynec/o mean, as in gynecology?
gynec/o means woman, female. Gynecology: medicine of the female reproductive system.
A — “colon, large intestine” is col/o and colon/o. B — “atrium, an upper heart chamber” is atri/o. C — “vein” is ven/o and phleb/o.
12Root
Which root means “brain”?
encephal/o means brain. Encephalitis: inflammation of the brain.
A — rhin/o and nas/o means nose. C — aden/o means gland. D — oophor/o and ovari/o means ovary.
13Root
What do the roots ten/o and tendin/o mean, as in tendinitis?
ten/o and tendin/o mean tendon. Tendinitis: inflammation of a tendon.
A — “adrenal gland” is adren/o. C — “secreting internally, into the blood” is endocrin/o. D — “heart” is cardi/o.
14Root
Which root means “calcium”?
calc/i means calcium. Hypocalcemia: a low calcium level in the blood.
A — nephr/o means kidney (Greek form). B — cyst/o means bladder; any fluid-filled sac. C — retin/o means retina.
15Root
What does the root leuk/o mean, as in leukocyte?
leuk/o means white. Leukocyte: a white blood cell.
B — “muscle” is my/o and myos/o. C — “stomach” is gastr/o. D — “vertebra, backbone” is vertebr/o and spondyl/o.
16Root
Which root means “sweat”?
hidr/o means sweat. Hyperhidrosis: excessive sweating.
A — cardi/o means heart. B — aden/o means gland. D — ten/o and tendin/o means tendon.
17Root
What does the root laryng/o mean, as in laryngitis?
laryng/o means larynx, voice box. Laryngitis: inflammation of the voice box.
A — “clot” is thromb/o. C — “liver” is hepat/o. D — “spinal cord; also bone marrow” is myel/o.
18Root
Which root means “taste”?
gust/o means taste. Gustatory: relating to the sense of taste.
A — phag/o means eat, engulf. B — glyc/o and gluc/o means sugar, glucose. C — kal/i means potassium.
19Suffix
What does the suffix -scopy mean, as in endoscopy?
-scopy means examining with a scope. Endoscopy: examining inside the body with a scope.
A — “deficiency, too few” is -penia. C — “one who studies, a specialist” is -ologist. D — “resembling, shaped like” is -oid.
20Suffix
Which suffix means “resembling, shaped like”?
-oid means resembling, shaped like. Adenoid: tissue that resembles a gland.
B — -ostomy and -stomy means making a permanent opening. C — -stenosis means narrowing. D — -pnea means breathing.
21Suffix
What does the suffix -dipsia mean, as in polydipsia?
-dipsia means thirst. Polydipsia: excessive thirst.
A — “making a permanent opening” is -ostomy and -stomy. B — “paralysis” is -plegia. D — “resembling, shaped like” is -oid.
22Suffix
Which suffix means “abnormal condition”?
-osis means abnormal condition. Cyanosis: a bluish color caused by too little oxygen.
A — -plasty means surgical repair or reshaping. B — -scopy means examining with a scope. D — -genic means producing, causing.
23Suffix
What do the suffixes -ostomy and -stomy mean, as in colostomy?
-ostomy and -stomy mean making a permanent opening. Colostomy: an opening from the colon to the abdominal wall.
B — “abnormal condition” is -osis. C — “pain” is -algia and -dynia. D — “paralysis” is -plegia.
24Suffix
Which suffix means “hardening”?
-sclerosis means hardening. Atherosclerosis: arteries hardened by fatty deposits.
A — -oid means resembling, shaped like. B — -phagia means swallowing, eating. C — -genesis means formation, origin.
25Suffix
What does the suffix -ologist mean, as in dermatologist?
-ologist means one who studies, a specialist. Dermatologist: a skin specialist.
B — “puncture to withdraw fluid” is -centesis. C — “narrowing” is -stenosis. D — “stopping, holding steady” is -stasis.
The full sheet of word parts, laid out to print and recite from, is one of the printables in the Pass Kit. The free diagnostic comes first: it tells you whether vocabulary is where your points are.
Almost every medical term is assembled from three kinds of part, and each kind does one job:
A combining vowel, nearly always o, glues the parts together and carries no meaning. So gastr-o-enter-itis is stomach, intestine, inflammation.
Start with the suffix, because it tells you what kind of thing the word is. Then the root, then the prefix. Bradycardia: -ia is a condition, cardi is the heart, brady- is slow. A condition of a slow heart. The method works on words you have never seen, which is the point of learning parts instead of words.
The English and Language Usage section runs at about 60 seconds a question, the fastest pace on the exam. A question you can decode from its parts takes a fraction of that and gives the time back to harder ones. The same vocabulary runs through the Science section, where the questions are about anatomy but are written in these parts. See the TEAS 7, section by section for what each section holds, or try the anatomy and physiology quiz next.
Not as a section of its own. Word parts come up in the English and Language Usage section, where some questions ask you to work out a word from its prefix, root and suffix, and they pay a second time in Science, where the questions are written in this vocabulary.
Fewer than a terminology course teaches. A few dozen prefixes and suffixes and the roots for the main body systems decode most of what the exam uses. Learning them is faster than memorizing whole words, because the same parts recombine.
Attach each part to an ordinary word you already know. If you know that a dermatologist is a skin doctor, you already know dermat/o and -ologist. Then cover the meanings and recite them. Recognizing a list is not the same as recalling it.
Half the questions give you the part and ask for its meaning, and half give you the meaning and ask for the part. The second direction is harder, and it is the one that tells you whether you can recall a part or only recognize it.
The free diagnostic covers all four TEAS sections in thirty questions and shows which topics return the most points per hour.
No card, and no account to start.