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1.5: Prefixes

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    A prefix is located at the beginning of a medical term and alters the meaning of the term. It is important to spell and pronounce prefixes correctly. When writing a prefix, if it is not in a medical term, you must place a “-” after the prefix. Not all medical terms have a prefix, but many do.

    The following is a good technique to help you memorize prefixes:

    • Start by reviewing the most common prefixes. We will look at more prefixes in Chapter 3.
    • Compare the prefixes to the examples of use in medical terms in the tables below.
    • Try to relate the prefixes below to common terms you hear in everyday life.
    Table 1.11. Prefixes
    Prefixes MEANING EXAMPLE OF USE IN MEDICAL TERMS
    a- , an- no, not anemia
    aut- self autopsy
    dia- complete, through diagnosis
    dys- bad, painful, difficult, abnormal dyspnea
    endo- within endoscope
    exo- outside exocrine
    hyper- too much, excessive hypertension
    hypo- too little, less than normal hypotension
    intra- within intravenous

    Key Concept

    The following is a list of some common anemias:

    Aplastic anemia: A condition in which the body does not produce enough red blood cells

    Thalassemia: An inherited disorder in which the body does not produce enough hemoglobin

    Sickle cell anemia: An inherited disorder where the red blood cells are crescent-shaped; Figure 1.19 below shows the difference between healthy red blood cells and the crescent-shaped red blood cells that occur with sickle cell anemia

    Vitamin deficiency anemia or pernicious anemia: A condition in which the body lacks vitamin B12, which is required to produce red blood cells

    Iron deficiency anemia: A condition in which the body lacks iron, which is carried on the red blood cells and allows the red blood cells to carry oxygen

    Hemolytic anemia: A condition that can either be inherited or develop later in life and is caused by the body destroying red blood cells faster than they can be produced

    (Mayo Clinic, 2022)

    Red blood cells and sickle cells
    Figure 1.19
    body with symptoms of anemia
    Figure 1.18

    Key Concept

    Simply changing the prefix can change the meaning of a medical term entirely.

    The prefixes hyper- and hypo- are used in many medical terms and usually mean the opposite of each other. See the examples below:

    • hypertension (high blood pressure) and hypotension (low blood pressure)
    • hyperthyroidism (condition of high thyroid) and hypothyroidism (condition of low thyroid)
    • hyperglycemia (high blood sugar) and hypoglycemia (low blood sugar)
    Table 1.12. Prefixes
    PREFIXES MEANING EXAMPLE OF USE IN MEDICAL TERMS
    peri- surrounding pericardium
    pro- before, forward prognosis
    re- back resection
    retro- behind retroperitoneal
    sub- below, under subhepatic
    trans- across, through transdermal
    image of pericardial sac
    Figure 1.20

    Key Concept

    The pericardium (Figure 1.20) surrounds the heart. Its function is to protect, lubricate, and keep the heart in the correct position in the chest cavity (Healthline, 2022). The term can be broken down as follows: peri- (“surrounding”), cardi (“heart”), and -um (“structure”), which gives you “a structure surrounding the heart.”

    Exercise

    Exercise

    Attribution

    Unless otherwise indicated, material on this page has been adapted from the following resource:

    Carter, K., & Rutherford, M. (2020). Building a medical terminology foundation. eCampusOntario. https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/medicalterminology/ licensed under CC BY 4.0

    References

    Healthline. (2022). Pericardium. https://www.healthline.com/health/pericardium

    Mayo Clinic. (2022). Anemia. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/anemia/symptoms-causes/syc-20351360

    Image Credits
    (Images are listed in order of appearance)

    Symptoms of anemia by Mikael Häggström, Public domain

    Sickle cell anemia by Pkleong, Public domain

    Blausen 0724 PericardialSac by Blausen Medical Communications, Inc., CC BY 3.0

    definition

    This page titled 1.5: Prefixes is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Lisa Sturdy and Susanne Erickson via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform.