100 Medical Terminology: Mastering the Basics Breaking Down and Building Digestive System Terms Now that you have mastered the prefixes, combining forms, and suffixes for digestive system terminology, you have the ability to dissect and build a large number of medical terms related to this system. Below is a list of common medical terms related to the study, diagnosis, and treatment of the digestive system. For each term, a dissection has been provided, along with the meaning of each word element and the definition of the term as a whole. Term Dissection Word Part/Meaning Term Defi nition Note: For simplifi cation, combining vowels have been omitted from the Word Part/Meaning column. 1. aphagia (ă-FĀ-jĕ-ă) a/phagia a = not without phagia = condition of eating or swallowing condition of without swallowing 2. carcinoma (kӓr-sĭ-NŌ-mă) carcin/oma carcin = cancerous cancer oma = tumor mass cancerous tumor or mass 3. celiectomy (sē-lē-ĔK-tō-mē) celi/ectomy celi = abdomen ectomy = surgical removal excision excision of the abdomen 4. cholecystitis (KŌ-lĕ-sĭs-TĪ-tĭs) cholecyst/itis cholecyst = gallbladder itis = infl ammation infl ammation of the gallbladder 5. cholelithiasis (KŌ-lĕ-lĭ-THĪ-ă-sĭs) chol/e/lith/iasis chol = bile gall lith = stone iasis = abnormal condition abnormal condition of gallstones 6. colitis (kō-LĪ-tĭs) col/itis col = colon itis = infl ammation infl ammation of the colon 7. colonoscopy (kō-lŏn-ŎS-kō-pē) colon/o/scopy colon = colon scopy = process of observing process of observing the colon 8. colostomy (kō-LŎS-tō-mē) col/o/stomy col = colon stomy = new opening new opening in the colon 9. diarrhea (dī-ă-RĒ-ă) dia/rrhea dia = through rrhea = fl ow discharge fl ow through 10. diverticulitis (DĪ-vĕr-tĭk-ū-LĪ-tĭs) diverticul/itis diverticul = diverticulum itis = infl ammation infl ammation of the diverticulum 11. diverticulosis (dī-vĕr-tĭk-ū-LŌ-sĭs) diverticul/osis diverticul = diverticulum osis = abnormal condition abnormal condition of the diverticulum Prefi xes = Green Root Words = Red Suffi xes = Blue