What is Some Common Medical Terminology?
Medical terminology can get very confusing for people who are not members of the medical field. Having a grasp on some commonly-used medical terminology can be helpful when it comes to navigating medical appointments and advocating for yourself or others. However, it’s important to remember that doctors go to school for a very long time, and they pick up a large vocabulary along the way, so patients should never be afraid to ask a doctor to clarify a term. A lot of medical terminology is based on Greek and Latin, so getting familiarized with some commonly used Greek and Latin stems help one understand the meaning of a word by breaking it into its component parts. Even if you don’t know the stems specifically, you may be able to understand the meaning of a word by thinking about similar English words, because these roots are shared with the English language.
