Doctor Decoded: 12 Word Tricks to Help You Understand Your Doctor

You might feel like you need a Latin class to understand your doctor — and in fact, it’s not uncommon for people who plan to become health professionals to take Latin classes to support their future careers. Luckily, you can save yourself some time and just learn a few key word tricks to help you decode medicalese, or the medical terminology your doctor uses.

You likely learned about word roots, prefixes, and suffixes in elementary school, and Latin-based medical terminology uses these word parts to form some of its most common words. Medical jargon often looks intimidating, but it can easily be broken down into its individual word parts. In this video, learn common medical prefixes to better understand your doctor.

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Written by:

Lauren Smith, MA

Lauren Smith, MA, has worked in health journalism since 2017. Before joining GoodRx, she was the senior health editor and writer for HealthiNation.

Reviewed by:

Brian Clista, MD

Dr. Clista is a board-certified pediatrician who works in private practice in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He previously served as a National Health Service Corporation Scholar in the inner city of Pittsburgh for 11 years.

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