Medical Terminology Essentials: 300 Terms and Word Parts

Decode clinical vocabulary through 300 essential terms and word parts.

300 cards

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Front	Back
brady- — what is it?	Prefix meaning slow. brady- = slow.
tachy- — what is it?	Prefix meaning fast or rapid. tachy- = rapid.
inter- — what is it?	Prefix meaning between or among. inter- = between.
sub- — what is it?	Prefix meaning under or below. sub- = below.
micro- — what is it?	Prefix meaning small. micro- = small.
dys- — what is it?	Prefix meaning bad, difficult, or painful. dys- = difficult or abnormal.
-tomy — what is it?	Suffix meaning cut into or incision. -tomy = incision.
-rrhagia — what is it?	Suffix meaning excessive flow or bursting forth. -rrhagia = excessive bleeding or discharge.
-malacia — what is it?	Suffix meaning abnormal softening. -malacia = softening.
ot/o — what is it?	Combining form meaning ear. ot/o = ear.
-a — what is it?	Plural ending in some Greek- or Latin-derived medical nouns, especially singular forms ending in -um or -on. do not assume every word ending in -a is plural.
lateral — what is it?	Directional term meaning away from the midline. lateral is opposite medial.
-cardia — what is it?	Heart rate or heart condition.
an/o — what is it?	Anus. an- = anus; -o- = combining vowel.
-uria — what is it?	Urine condition or urine presence.
hyster/o — what is it?	Uterus. hyster- = uterus; -o- = combining vowel.
endocrin/o — what is it?	Endocrine glands; internal secretion.
myel/o — what is it?	Combining form meaning spinal cord or bone marrow, depending on context. in nervous-system terms it usually refers to the spinal cord.
trich/o — what is it?	Combining form meaning hair. it appears in hair-related disorders and procedures.
acous/o — what is it?	Combining form meaning hearing or sound. it appears in terms about sound perception and hearing loss.
-oma — what is it?	Suffix meaning tumor or mass. it can be benign or malignant depending on context, so the word part alone does not tell severity.
interstitial — what is it?	Pertaining to the spaces within a tissue or between tissue elements.
glaucoma — what is it?	A group of eye disorders that can damage the optic nerve, often linked to pressure changes. it is distinct from lens clouding.
-ion — what is it?	A noun-forming suffix meaning process or condition. no further parts; often turns an action into a state.
-phoresis — what is it?	A suffix meaning carrying or transmission. no further parts; often refers to movement or transfer.
acro- — what is it?	A prefix meaning extremity or topmost part. acro- = extremity.
em- — what is it?	A prefix meaning in or within; a variant of en- used before certain consonants.
ortho- — what is it?	A prefix meaning straight, correct, or normal. ortho- = straight/correct.
ex- — what is it?	A prefix meaning out of or away from. ex- = out.
dyspnea — what is it?	Difficult or labored breathing. dys- = difficult, -pnea = breathing.

About this deck

Medical terminology becomes manageable the moment you learn how the words are built. This 300-card foundation combines high-yield prefixes, suffixes and combining forms with the common directional, diagnostic, procedural and body-system terms built out of them. Each card explains the term in plain English and, where it helps, breaks it into components — so the pattern transfers to a term you have never seen instead of stopping at the ones you memorized. Import it and the whole deck joins your spaced-repetition schedule. Terms you already know stretch out and drop out of sight; the ones that keep slipping come back until they stop slipping. What goes down is the number of terms you still don't know — not the time it takes to flip past 300 cards you mostly do.

Frequently asked

Does importing this deck use my AI allowance?: No. Importing uses the saved deck as published; it does not run AI generation or use your AI allowance. The complete deck can therefore be imported on the free plan.
What happens if I import the deck twice?: Existing cards are skipped. A later import only adds genuinely new cards, so it does not create a second copy of the same material. Including re-imports after deletion, the same Memly curated deck can be imported up to three times per account over its lifetime.
Can I change or remove cards after importing?: Yes. Imported cards belong to your account. You can edit either side, delete cards, add notes, or move them to another deck.
Can I study the same deck on web and mobile?: Yes. The deck is added to your Memly account and stays available across the web app and the iOS and Android apps.
Can I drill just prefixes, or just suffixes?: Yes. Every card is tagged by element type — combining form, prefix, suffix, root, inflection and whole term — so you can filter to one type and work through it. Combining forms are the largest block at 115 cards, then suffixes at 74 and prefixes at 64.
Does the deck teach word-building rules as well as definitions?: Yes. Root, prefix, suffix and combining-form cards explain meaning and show how the element appears in an independently written clinical example.
Where should I start if the whole list looks like noise?: Start with the prefixes and suffixes. A few dozen of them recur across hundreds of terms, so they pay off across the rest of the deck faster than the whole-term cards do.

Compiled 2026-08-16. Every card is written by Memly. Not medical advice.