Combining Forms with Medical Terminology A combining form is the combination of a root with a combining vowel. Example: ARTHR/O βARTHRβ is the root, and the βOβ is the combining vowel. βOβ is the most frequently used combining vowel.
A medical word consists of some or all of the following elements: word root, combining form, suffix, and prefix. How you combine these elements, and whether all or some of them are present in a medical term, determines the meaning of a word.
When you come across an unfamiliar word in a passage, one of the ways to determine its meaning is to break the word down to smaller parts. These are known as word parts and there are three types: root words. They can sometimes be combined with prefixes and suffixes to change its meaning or create a new word., prefixes.
Suffix: The ending part of a word that modifies the meaning of the word. Additional resources: [Intro to med terms] [Med terms rules] [Med term reference] [Word building reference] [Practice Exams]