Medical Terminology Flashcards
Ready-made medical terminology flashcards with a built-in spaced-repetition study system — from the core prefixes, suffixes, and word roots up to advanced specialist vocabulary. Hear how each term is pronounced, not just how it's spelled. No Anki setup, no subscription: buy the deck you need once and keep it for life.
All Medical Terminology flashcard sets
Pick the set that fits your goal — each is a one-time purchase with lifetime access and native audio.
Advanced Medical Terminology - Specialist Healthcare Vocabulary
Advanced medical terminology for experienced healthcare professionals. Learn complex medical terms, procedures, and diagnostic terminology.
Essential Medical Terminology - Healthcare Professional Vocabulary
Master fundamental medical terms used in healthcare settings. Perfect for nursing students, medical assistants, and healthcare professionals starting their careers.
Which medical terminology set fits where you are?
| You are | Start with | Then | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| A nursing or medical assistant student in your first terminology course | Essential Medical Terminology | Advanced Medical Terminology | The essential set is the shared vocabulary every specialty builds on, so it is wasted effort to skip it. |
| A new healthcare worker reading charts on the floor | Essential Medical Terminology | Medical Abbreviations | Charts are written in abbreviations, so the two sets together cover most of what you will actually read. |
| An experienced clinician moving into a specialty | Advanced Medical Terminology | Anatomy | The advanced set is procedure and diagnostic vocabulary, which assumes the basics are already there. |
| Studying for an exam | Essential, then Advanced | Anatomy and Medical Abbreviations | Working through both in order matches how terminology courses are sequenced. |
Learn the word parts and you can read terms you were never taught
Medical terminology is a construction system, not a vocabulary list. Almost every term breaks into a root, an optional prefix, and a suffix.
| Part | Does | Examples | In a word |
|---|---|---|---|
| Root | Names the body part or system | cardi (heart), derm (skin), oste (bone), gastr (stomach), nephr (kidney) | cardiology, dermatitis |
| Prefix | Adds position, number, or degree | peri- (around), endo- (within), hyper- (above), hypo- (below), brady- (slow), tachy- (fast) | pericardium, tachycardia |
| Suffix | Says what is happening or being done | -itis (inflammation), -ectomy (removal), -otomy (cutting into), -ology (study of), -osis (condition) | gastritis, appendectomy |
| Combining vowel | Joins parts so they can be said | usually o, dropped before a vowel | oste + o + arthritis |
Once the parts are in place, a term you have never seen becomes readable. Pericarditis splits into peri, cardi and itis: inflammation around the heart. Nephrectomy is nephr and ectomy: removal of a kidney. Bradycardia is a slow heart rate. This is why learning fifty parts beats memorising five hundred whole words, and why the sets teach the parts alongside the terms.
Read a term from the suffix backwards. The suffix tells you what kind of word it is, the prefix tells you where or how much, and the root tells you what it happened to. Applied in that order, most terms decode on the first attempt.
Why these Medical Terminology flashcards
Native-speaker audio
Hear the correct pronunciation on every card, not just a romanization.
No Anki, no setup
Study right here in your browser or on mobile. Nothing to install or configure.
Buy once, keep for life
A one-time purchase per deck. No subscription, and updates are included.
Preview the flashcards
A free sample drawn from across the Medical Terminology sets — hear every card with native audio in the full deck.
- Systemic Lupus Erythematosus/ sis-TEM-ik LOO-pus eh-rih-thee-mah-TOH-sus /
- A chronic autoimmune disease that can affect various body parts, including joints, skin, kidneys, blood cells, brain, heart, and lungs. It is characterized by the immune system attacking its own tissues.
- Lung/ lung /
- One of a pair of organs in the chest that are used for breathing.
- Pharmacodynamics/ far-muh-koh-dy-NAM-iks /
- The study of the biochemical and physiological effects of drugs on the body and the mechanisms of drug action, i.e., what the drug does to the body.
- Ear/ eer /
- The organ of hearing and balance.
- Aortic Stenosis/ ay-OR-tik steh-NOH-sis /
- A narrowing of the aortic valve, the valve that controls blood flow from the heart to the body. This narrowing prevents the valve from opening fully, obstructing blood flow.
- Asthma/ AZ-muh /
- A respiratory condition marked by spasms in the bronchi of the lungs, causing difficulty in breathing.
- Hysterectomy/ his-tuh-REK-tuh-mee /
- A surgical procedure to remove the uterus, which may also involve the removal of the cervix, ovaries, and fallopian tubes.
- Edema/ uh-DEE-muh /
- Swelling caused by excess fluid trapped in your body's tissues.
- Gestational Diabetes/ jes-TAY-shun-ul dy-uh-BEE-teez /
- A type of diabetes that develops during pregnancy in women who have not previously had diabetes. It can lead to complications for both mother and baby if not managed.
- Ultrasound/ UL-truh-sownd /
- A medical imaging technique that uses high-frequency sound waves to produce images of organs and structures inside the body.
- Acromegaly/ ak-roh-MEG-uh-lee /
- A hormonal disorder that results from too much growth hormone (GH) in the body, leading to enlarged hands and feet, and changes in facial features. It is usually caused by a pituitary tumor.
- Dermatology/ der-muh-TOL-uh-jee /
- The branch of medicine concerned with the diagnosis and treatment of skin disorders.
Frequently asked questions
What is the fastest way to learn medical terminology?
Learn the word parts, then drill them with spaced repetition. Almost every medical term is built from a prefix, a root, and a suffix — once you know the common ones, you can decode terms you've never seen. Reviewing them at increasing intervals, the way this deck schedules for you, moves them into long-term memory far faster than rereading a list.
How can I memorize medical terms easily?
Break each term into its parts and learn them in small themed batches instead of one long list — cardio- (heart), -itis (inflammation), so carditis is inflammation of the heart. Hearing each term spoken helps too, since many are hard to pronounce from the spelling alone. A few minutes of review a day beats one long cram session.
Do I have to make my own flashcards for medical terminology?
No — these decks are already built and organized by prefixes, suffixes, body systems, and specialty, so you can start studying immediately instead of spending hours typing cards. Every card includes a plain-English meaning and audio.
Do these medical terminology flashcards include audio?
Yes. Every card can be played aloud so you can hear how each term is pronounced — useful for the long Greek and Latin words that are easy to misread. The built-in spaced-repetition system schedules your reviews, and everything runs in your browser and on mobile.
Do I need Anki or a subscription?
Neither. The deck and the study system run right here, and it is a one-time purchase with lifetime access — no monthly fee.
Keep learning Medical Terminology
More free guides and decks to get you speaking.