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Medical Terminology / Unit 2   MedTerm 0061 short lesson, about 20 seconds

What a Suffix Does to a Term

Captions available

The idea

A suffix determines what kind of thing a medical term names: a condition, a procedure, an instrument, or a specialty.

In practice

The root cardi names the heart. Carditis is a disease, cardiectomy a surgery, cardiology a field of study.

Where people slip

The root never changes what kind of term it is. That is the suffix's work alone.

Your place on the trail

Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.

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