The first thing I learned as a student in medical terminology is that the suffix otomy means “incision.” With that one piece of information, I felt empowered. Knowing that any term with the suffix otomy meant that the body part would have an incision made into it gave me instant understanding of a plethora of medical terms. For example, a gastrotomy means “incision into the stomach (or gastric region).”

The more I learned, the more empowered I felt. That same day, I also learned two other suffixes: algia, which means “pain,” and itis, which means “inflammation of.” I now knew that the term neuralgia means “pain from the nerves or caused by a nerve.” And I now knew that arthritis means “inflammation of the joint” (arth being a prefix meaning “joint”). Once you learn the basic rules of the language, root words, prefixes, and suffixes, the process of learning a language is much easier.