Axia College Material

Appendix C

Building a Medical Vocabulary Ch. 2

Complete activities A, B, & C, and post to the Individual forum.

A. Use the word bank below to build the medical word that corresponds to each definition in
problems 1-13. Click the grey box to begin typing.

-ior later/o- infer/o- umbilic/o-

-al dors/o- caud/o- inguin/o-
poster/o- -ar ventr/o- hypo-
medi/o super/o- -ad anter/o-
-ly gastr/o- lumb/o- -ic

lumbar 1. Pertaining to the lower back

2. Pertaining to below the stomach hypogastric

3. Pertaining to the naval Umbilical

4. Pertaining to the front part anterior

5. Pertaining to going toward the front part ventral

6. Pertaining to the groin inguinal

7. Pertaining to the back part dorsal

8. Pertaining to going toward the back part posteriorly

9. Pertaining to going toward the middle medial

10. Pertaining to going toward the side laterally

11. Pertaining to above superior

12. Pertaining to below inferior

13. In the direction of the tailbone caudad

B. Define the following words or word parts.

HCA 220
-ad Toward, in the -ior Pertaining to
direction of
-ics Knowledge, practice Ana- Apart from,
excessive
Prone Inclined downward Supine Lying on the back

viscera- Soft internal organs transverse Across; through; to

turn; to travel
Hypo- Below; deficient Re- Again and again;
backward; unable to

HCA 220
C. In this activity, break the medical word into its word parts. Using the word parts, create a
definition of the word. Write a sentence using the word in a medical context. Use the table to
record your answers.

Additional
Combining Combining
Medical Word Prefix form form or suffix Suffix Definition
Anteroposterior
Anter/ Poster/o- ior Moving from the front to back
Sentence: An anterposterior x-ray is taken from the front to the back.

Imaginary plane that divides the entire

body into right and left sections; such
as moving from the side of the body to
Midsagittal
the midline (medial or medially)or
moving from the midline toward the
mid Sagitt/o- al side of the body.(later or laterally)
Sentence: The diagram was viewed along the midsagittal plane.

Distally Moving away from the point of origin or

dis Dist/o- ally attachment
Sentence: The incision ran distally from the elbow to the wrist.

Proximally Moving toward the point of origin or

proxim Proxim/o- ally attachment
Sentence: The cut continued proximally from the ankle to the knee.

Physiology The study of the function of the human

physio Physic/o- logy body and its parts
Sentence: If you study physiology you will learn how the human body and its parts work.

HCA 220