Common Medical Terms
11,000+ medical words with pronunciation guides and plain-English definitions
Medical language can feel like a foreign language — because it is. Most medical terms come from Latin and Greek roots used by physicians for centuries. Whether you received a diagnosis you cannot pronounce, a referral letter filled with unfamiliar words, or a prescription with confusing instructions, this resource is built for you.
Common Conditions & Diseases
View all →The conditions most patients encounter — from chronic diseases to acute infections.
Common Procedures & Surgeries
View all →Surgical and clinical procedures your doctor may recommend or refer you for.
Common Diagnostic Tests
View all →Tests used to diagnose, monitor, and screen for medical conditions.
Common Anatomy Terms
View all →Body parts, structures, and anatomical regions referenced in medical reports.
Why Medical Terms Are Hard to Pronounce
Most medical terms are not English words — they are Latin and Greek roots combined with prefixes and suffixes. The word "appendicitis," for example, comes from the Latin appendix (a small attachment) plus the Greek suffix -itis (inflammation). Once you know those two parts, you know that appendicitis means "inflammation of the appendix" — and you can apply the same logic to tonsillitis, bronchitis, gastritis, and hundreds of other conditions.
The pronunciation challenge is real because Latin and Greek stress patterns differ from English. Words like "otolaryngology" (oh-toh-lair-in-GOL-oh-jee) or "sphygmomanometer" (sfig-moh-mah-NOM-ih-ter) follow rules that feel counterintuitive to native English speakers. That is exactly why audio pronunciation guides matter — reading a phonetic breakdown once is worth more than guessing from the spelling.
MedicalWords.org provides audio pronunciation for every term in our database, so you can hear the correct pronunciation before your next appointment, procedure, or exam.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the most important medical terms to know?▾
The most useful medical terms to know fall into four groups: common conditions (hypertension, diabetes, pneumonia), procedures (biopsy, colonoscopy, MRI), anatomy (femur, aorta, cerebrum), and dosing instructions (PRN, BID, NPO). Learning these covers the vast majority of what patients encounter in doctor visits, hospital stays, and medical paperwork.
Why do doctors use so many Latin and Greek words?▾
Medical terminology is built on Latin and Greek roots because these languages were the language of science and medicine in Europe for centuries. The advantage is precision — a single Latin or Greek term can describe a complex condition exactly, without ambiguity across different languages. Once you learn the roots, prefixes, and suffixes, you can decode thousands of medical terms you have never seen before.
How do I learn medical terminology quickly?▾
The fastest way is to learn the building blocks rather than individual words. Start with the 25 most common suffixes (-itis means inflammation, -ectomy means surgical removal, -logy means study of), then add the most common prefixes (hyper- means high, hypo- means low, brady- means slow). With 50 word parts, you can decode hundreds of terms on your own.
What does it mean when a medical term ends in -itis?▾
-itis is one of the most common medical suffixes and it always means inflammation. Appendicitis is inflammation of the appendix. Arthritis is inflammation of the joints. Gastritis is inflammation of the stomach lining. Whenever you see -itis at the end of a medical term, you know inflammation is involved.