Welcome to the fascinating study of medical terminology—a vital part of your preparation for a career as a health professional. I am glad that you have joined us. Throughout your career, in a variety of settings, you will use medical terminology to communicate with coworkers and patients. Employing this carefully constructed learning system, The Basics of Medical Terminology will help readers gain a successful grasp of medical language within a real-world context.

In developing this book I had five goals in mind:

To provide a clear introduction to the basic rules of using word parts to form medical terms.

To help you understand medical terminology within the context of the human body systems. Realizing that this book is designed for a terminology course and not an anatomy and physiology course, I have aimed to stick to only the basics.

To help you develop a full range of Latin and Greek word parts used to build medical terms so that you will be able to interpret unfamiliar terms you encounter in the future.

To help you visualize medical language with an abundance of accurate illustrations.

To provide you with a wealth of practice applications at the end of each chapter to help you review and master the content as you go along.